


Well Did You Ever?

by Ultra



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Bachelorette Party, Best Friends, Confusion, Cousins, Drama & Romance, Engagement, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Friendship/Love, Heart-to-Heart, Heartache, Heartbreak, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Inspired by a Movie, Male-Female Friendship, Memories, Old Friends, Party, Past Relationship(s), Romance, Stag Nights & Bachelor Parties, Surprises, Unexpected Visitors, Wedding Planning, Weddings, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-12 20:05:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 32,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3353624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Rory never dated before Jess came to town. He was her first love, she thought they were forever, until he skipped town. 5 years later, Rory is marrying nice, dependable Dean who mended her broken heart... or is she? Enter Logan, a reporter who is covering the high society wedding, and re-enter Jess, now an author on a book tour, and still in love with Rory. What’s a girl to do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Who wants a new Literati fic? Don’t worry, it won’t stop me regularly updating my current fics, I just... I need to be sharing this now, so I’m going to. It’ll be updated as and when, no schedule, and honestly? It’s such a wacky idea I don’t actually expect anyone to read it or care about it, but hey, posting it anyway! lol

_May 2003_

Rory Gilmore ought to have known it could never last. If things seemed too good to be true, that was because ninety nine percent of the time, that’s exactly what they were. She supposed that she had hoped they were that rare one percent, her and Jess, but apparently she was wrong.

When Jess Mariano first came to town, Rory had been intrigued. She had heard so much about Luke’s nephew but never met him. The dark, mysterious, brooding boy from NYC proved to be much better looking than Rory had expected somehow, and so amazingly well-read! They just seemed to have so many interests in common, from books to music, movies, and so much more. The only major difference between them was that Jess seemed to be drawn to trouble, and Rory had always been such a good girl. It made them an unlikely pairing in most people’s eyes, but Rory couldn’t think of anything more perfect than getting closer to Jess, and he had no problem with that at all.

She hadn’t really dated before. No, Stars Hollow’s little Rory Gilmore had never had a boyfriend, but pretty much from the get go, she knew she wanted Jess to be the first, and potentially the only. 

It was rocky off and on. Rory’s mother, Lorelai, didn’t much care for Jess, and though Luke loved his nephew dearly, he also looked upon Rory as a daughter. It made him protective and at times, that left no-one in Jess’ corner. Rory’s grandparents never really liked the hoodlum either, and the townsfolk were determined to see only his less-good side.

Rory always insisted no-one knew Jess like she did. To this day she still believed that, and yet Jess had gone out and proved that for all she knew of her boyfriend, it wasn't enough. He left, more than twenty four hours ago, and without a word of goodbye, though they had dated for more than eighteen months. Rory thought it ought to mean something to him, but maybe she was wrong.

Jess had recently revealed that he was flunking out of high school through poor attendance and couldn’t take her to prom, but Rory couldn’t believe that alone was his reason to run. She blamed herself. She must have been such a terrible girlfriend if he couldn't talk to her, couldn’t even bear to say goodbye. She even considered it was because she just wasn’t good enough when finally she felt ready and she and Jess had sex. It only happened once, just a few days before he left. Rory never talked to her mother about it in the end, because she knew Lorelai would use it against Jess in the worst ways. She just didn’t want to hear that.

Rory knew she wasn’t blameless for this relationship falling apart. Sat in the darkness of her room all alone, going over everything that had happened, she knew she made mistakes. That didn’t change the fact that Jess was wrong too, running out on her without a word. People who loved each other like they were supposed to didn’t act that way. Not that Rory had been too fast to tell him she loved him. Maybe she should have made it clearer; it might've encouraged him to do the same. It didn’t take long for Rory to realise that much of the time she had been telling Jess where he was going wrong in his life, trying to make him want to better himself. It was supposed to be a supportive thing, but maybe she had just pushed too hard.

Regardless, Lorelai was now blaming Jess for everything since the world began, and most other people seemed to agree. Luke, Emily and Richard, the folks in town, they all took the time to tell Rory how much better off she was without her dead-beat boyfriend. Rory didn’t feel better off. So much for plenty of fish in the sea and all the other old clichés, Rory couldn’t bear the thought of dating anyone but Jess. Of course in time she probably would, but right now her heart was broken, and felt as if it might never be repaired.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know April is usually an unpopular character, but I like her. I think she got a very bad press, because hey, she didn’t ask to be born, y’know? So she’s in this fic and I hope you’ll appreciate her input, ‘cause I’m kinda making her a Literati shipper ;) Now, without further ado, let’s leap forward 5 years...

_Saturday 21st June 2008 09:24_

It felt weird to be back, that was Jess Mariano’s first thought as he stepped off the bus in Stars Hollow. Of course there were a myriad of other thoughts just waiting to burst into his mind on the heels of that one, but definitely the weirdness of the moment came first.

Five years he had been gone, never been back for so much as a flying visit since. It had been eighteen year old Jess that got on a bus much like this one and headed out of town without so much as a goodbye, and now he was back by the same mode of transport, five years older, and hopefully a little wiser. Still, if any place was going to prove that last part wrong, it would be here.

“Hello, nephew,” said a voice.

Jess turned sharply at the sound and a nervous smile played at his lips as he faced Luke head on. The guy really hadn’t changed at all, still dressed in the same look of denim and flannel. Jess wouldn’t have been all that surprised if it turned out this was the exact outfit his uncle had been wearing the first time he came to meet him off a bus in Stars Hollow, but now didn’t seem like the time to mention it.

“Luke,” he nodded once as he cleared the few paces between them, hands shoved in his pockets. “It’s been a while.”

Whether he meant since he was in Stars Hollow or since they saw each other, neither was really certain. The truth was that they had at least kept in touch, even though Jess hadn’t set foot back in this town since he left. Luke knew why, just as well as his nephew did, and the reason’s name was Rory Gilmore. Now didn’t seem like a great time to bring her up, so they didn’t.

“So, book tour,” said Luke, pushing off the wall and standing staring intently at the boy who had somehow become a man over the last few years. “Things must be going good for you. I mean, I came to see you at the open house in Philadelphia, what? Two years ago? It was just the one book, short print run, and now...”

“Now it’s two books and a whole lotta luck that hit me right between the eyes,” Jess shrugged.

Luke shook his head.

“Really? You’re going with luck as the reason you’re on the best seller list?

“I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“How about talent?” Luke suggested.

Jess scoffed at that, rolled his eyes and looked away. He never had taken compliments all that well, and certainly didn’t feel like he deserved them now, not here of all places. Once upon a time he had a chance to make a home and a life in this town, a family even. Though his leaving wasn’t entirely his own fault, Jess knew the dreams that others had for him were blown to hell the day he left Stars Hollow, and though he never told a soul, a few of his own dreams had gone to the bottom of the ocean at the very same moment.

“So, what’s new in the Hollow?” he asked with a smirk that made him seventeen again in his uncle’s eyes.

Luke shot him a dirty look.

“As if you don’t know.”

Jess hefted his bag higher on his shoulder and set to walking, just expecting his uncle to fall into step. Of course he knew what was happening this weekend, there was no way not to. He was supposed to be okay about it, after all, Jess had left Rory not the other way around, and in any case that had been five years ago. He was all aware that she had a new man in her life, that he had been around a while, and that this weekend, that same man would make Rory his wife. By tomorrow afternoon, Rory Gilmore would no longer exist, and in her place would be Mrs Lorelai Leigh Forester. Jess tried not to grimace as the thought of it passed through his head. Still, Luke must’ve noticed something because he commented on it.

“I know you said it was just a coincidence, but Jess, you really are just here for the book tour, right?” he checked, looking sideways at his nephew as they headed into town and towards the diner. “I’d hate to think you planned this to mess with her head. Rory doesn’t deserve that.”

“Luke,” he sighed. “Me and Rory... that was a long time ago, and it is what it is. We both moved on,” he assured his uncle. “I’m in Connecticut for the promotion of my novel, I have a signing at a book store in Hartford this afternoon, and tomorrow I’ll be gone,” he said definitely. “Rory’s wedding is... it’s just a coincidence.”

He said it like he meant it, and Luke nodded that he understood before going onto other topics of conversation, but he didn’t really believe Jess could be serious. It may have been five years since Jess was in town, but somehow Luke didn’t quite believe it was that long since he and Rory made contact. Luke also didn’t believe that Jess being here the day before her wedding to another man was pure coincidence, but for now he would let it go. It really wasn’t worth the trouble of starting a fight.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 09:32_

“April, honey, could you move those please?”

The teen did as asked just in time for Lorelai to put a pile of gifts down in the space she had made on the table. The two of them stepped back and admired the display of exquisitely wrapped parcels. Lorelai shook her head.

“See, this? This is why I should’ve got married!”

“I’m not sure it’s really appropriate to consider getting married purely for the pile of gifts,” said April thoughtfully. “Although I guess I can see the appeal... unless the guy you have to marry is Dean.”

Her almost-step mother turned wide eyes on her.

“April! There is nothing wrong with Dean. He’s a very nice guy and he’s going to make our Rory very happy,” she assured her.

“I didn’t say he wasn’t nice,” she shrugged, playing with the curled ribbon on the nearest wedding gift. “I just think that somebody like Rory should be with a guy that’s more appropriate for her, that has some... I don’t know, some life, some ambition in his soul!”

Lorelai didn’t answer that, only smiled and returned to arranging the wedding gifts while she had the chance. Once Emily and Richard got back, her mother would take over everything, and despite being mother of the bride, Lorelai would be relegated to a meaningless extra in this occasion. Still, April’s words rang in her head. Dean was nice and suitable as far as a husband for her daughter went. They loved each other, as people getting married should, but Lorelai couldn’t deny that she understood April’s point of view when it came to Rory needing more in a husband than just nice.

All the dreams they had, that Rory had, about going to Harvard and becoming a journalist, an overseas correspondent no less. It all seemed to fade away over time. Everything changed, and now, though she was still going to be a reporter, she was staying very much where she was, both geographically and otherwise. Her home would be Stars Hollow, her life would be as a small town newspaper writer, a wife, maybe a mother someday soon. It wasn’t quite what Lorelai had expected for her baby girl’s future, or what she really wanted, but she knew that wasn’t her choice to make.

“Oh, Lorelai, really!” Emily gasped then, making her daughter jump with her sudden entrance.

“Hey, Mom,” she smiled anyway as she turned to face her. “Don’t tell me, this is not the proper Miss Manners way to stack wedding gifts?”

April decided now was a good time to escape just as soon as Mrs Gilmore entered the room. She ducked out through the glass doors onto the patio and found Rory reclining on a sun lounger, a large umbrella keeping the bright sun out of her eyes. She was writing furiously on a legal pad, and April knew exactly what her pseudo-sister would be doing.

“Still working on the vows, huh?” she asked as she came over and parked herself on the lounger next to Rory’s own.

“Oh, hi, April,” she replied, barely looking up. “I’m almost done.”

She continued frowning at the pad a moment longer then glanced up to meet the disbelieving gaze of Luke’s daughter. She was way too smart for her age, that much Rory knew, but then even the dumbest of people would be able to see the trouble she was having when it came to her vows.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she huffed, tossing the note pad onto the table with a sigh and swinging her legs over the side of the lounger to face April. “I love Dean, I want to marry him, plus I write for a living. How can it be so hard to put my feelings into words when it comes to my own wedding?”

“You’re probably asking the wrong girl,” said April with a look. “I’m the one who took an entire year to get up the courage to ask out Freddie Collins, only for him to laugh in my face.”

“Aaaw, honey,” Rory sympathised like any big sister should. “If he can’t see how great you are then he’s not worth your time,” she said definitely.

“I know,” April sighed heavily. “I’d just like to be noticed by somebody, preferably before I’m old enough to vote or be drafted.”

Rory smiled at her words and turned back towards the legal pad on the table. She didn’t pick it up again, she couldn’t, though she probably should. The wedding was tomorrow, a little over twenty four hours away and still she had no vows. To think she had been the one to suggest writing their own, actually going up against Dean’s traditionalist parents and winning, all so she could get the worst case of writer’s block ever known. It made her feel wretched.

“Oh my God!” April suddenly gasped, a grin lighting up her face as Rory looked at her.

She had her cell phone in her hands, clearly having just read a text that made her ridiculously happy. Rory was about to ask what was going on when April suddenly leapt to her feet and moved away.

“I have to go. See you later, Rory!” she called over her shoulder literally running away.

Evidently something exciting just happened, probably as simple as one of April’s girl-friends with an update on a boy she liked. Rory smiled remembering what it was like to be so young and carefree. Not that she was exactly old and stressed now, but sometimes she couldn’t help but feel she had grown up very fast. Looking down at the engagement ring on her finger certainly made her feel very much the adult, perhaps older than her twenty two years should really be. Mrs Forester. That was who she would be after tomorrow. It bothered her that the idea of it didn’t make her heart sing every time she thought of it, but Rory considered that was just because she so loved being one of the Gilmore girls with her mom.

As if on cue, Lorelai appeared between the billowing drapes at the patio doors with a smile on her lips.

“Hey, mind if I come hang out here a while?” she asked, wandering over. “Your grandma’s life kinda depends on it.”

Rory smiled and gestured for her mother to take the seat across from her.

“For what it’s worth, I think you’re coping really well with the whole society wedding thing.”

“Thanks, sweets,” Lorelai smiled, reaching out to push Rory’s hair back behind her ear. “Y’know, I never thought you’d want this? The whole Gilmore clan blowout wedding, chairs on the lawn, champagne breakfast...”

“Neither did I, at first,” Rory considered. “But Grandma and Grandpa really wanted to host everything, and there are so many family members and friends to invite, it made sense to have the wedding in a bigger place,” she considered aloud. “Besides, I am the Gilmore heir and...”

She stopped talking abruptly when she saw the shift in her mother’s sparkling eyes. It wasn’t meant to come out that way, never meant to imply that Lorelai had deprived her parents of something special, even though they both knew she had. This day, this perfectly special and wonderful occasion with all its frills and finery, it should have been Lorelai’s wedding day, the big high society affair for the heir to the Gilmore estate. She had declined to let it happen, refusing the offer Christopher made her, in spite of the fact she loved him then, in spite of the fact she was carrying his child.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Rory shook her head. “I didn’t mean...”

“I know,” she assured her with a brave smile. “Honey, I didn’t want this. Even if me and your Dad had figured things out and wanted to get married, this wouldn’t have been a fairy-tale for me, it would’ve been a nightmare,” she assured her. “We have a lot in common, kid, but our tastes have been known to vary. You like some of this fancy stuff and that’s fine. Me? I spent my whole life running from it.”

Rory knew that was true. She knew she didn’t have to feel bad for having this wedding, and yet it was hard to remember that sometimes. It still felt very strange when she remembered how things used to be, all those years spent living in a house they named The Crap Shack, just her and her mom against the world. Luke had always been there, a father figure when Rory’s own dad couldn’t care, and then there had been Jess. Thinking of him still made Rory’s stomach do flips and her heart beat faster, though she couldn’t say why for sure. Most of the time, she told herself it was recalling how he hurt her the day he left. Other times she admitted, somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, that maybe she still had a few unresolved feelings for him, though she quickly dismissed it every time. Five years since she saw him last, but less since they talked, much less.

_“So, what’s new?”_

_“Um, well... I got engaged.”_

_“...”_

_“Jess? Did you hear...?”_

_“I heard. Congratulations.”_

_“Thank you. Jess, I....”_

_“Look, I’ve gotta go. I’m sorry.”_

“Rory?” her mother called for her attention when she seemed to lose her to thoughts. “You okay, honey?” she checked.

“Sure, yeah,” Rory smiled. “I’m getting married tomorrow. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

Lorelai shook her head.

“Can’t think of a reason,” she said, though in all honesty that was a lie.

There was a big reason why Rory might not be ecstatically happy right now, though Lorelai was pretty sure her daughter wasn’t aware of it yet. If she were, they would be having a much more serious conversation right now, about a certain nephew of Lorelai’s own other half. As it was, they had managed to keep Jess’ visit to Hartford and Stars Hollow a secret so far, and if they could just keep it that way for another twenty four hours or so, so much the better, however impossible the task might seem!


	3. Chapter 2

_Saturday 21st June 2008 10:02_

“You’re in Stars Hollow right now?” April gasped happily into her phone. “Jess! Why didn’t you tell me you were coming!”

“The Hartford stop for the book tour was kinda last minute,” her cousin explained. “But I knew there was no way to be there and not come over to see you and your dad.”

“And as you arrive, I am in Hartford,” said April, rolling her eyes. “What are the odds?”

It was so unfair, she wanted to be where Jess was, especially since he probably wasn’t staying long. It was three years ago now when they first met, not long after she had found out that Luke was her dad. An open house at Jess’ publishing firm in Philly had been a pit-stop for not-quite thirteen year old April, and though she and her cousin hadn’t exactly loved each other on sight, they sure got to be good friends just as soon as they started really talking. She knew books, which he appreciated, and thanks to her mother’s influence, April even had the kind of musical taste that Jess appreciated. For her, he was a big brother figure in a way, and yet she knew he was a hottie. Maybe that was wrong given they were cousins, but she was a teenage girl and not at all blind. Either way, April loved her cousin, and there had been many a visit made to Philadelphia to see him over the years. He had never come back to Stars Hollow though, at least not until today. That brought up a question that April couldn’t help but ask.

“Are you sure you’re here because of your book?” she checked as she sat down on the low wall at the end of the Gilmore drive way.

“Why else?” her cousin asked her. “Unless you really think I care enough about you to put another stop in my tour,” he teased.

“Hardly,” she sighed. “But some other female might entice you. I know you know what tomorrow is. I was there when Luke talked to you about it.”

Jess winced at her words. Of course he knew what tomorrow was, how could he not? His uncle had always practically played father to Rory, ever more so since he and Lorelai started dating. There was no possible way the topic wouldn’t come up.

“That’s what we call a coincidence, kid,” he told April simply, one of a very short list of lies that he ever told his cousin.

She practically laughed at his answer. Damn, that girl knew him too well already.

“You’re such a bad liar,” she told him. “But hey, let’s pretend I believe you for two seconds, do you really plan on avoiding Rory and her entire wedding while you’re in town?”

“I don’t know,” Jess replied, and April could practically hear him squirming. “I mean, if I run into her then I do, nothing I can do to stop that from happening. Stars Hollow is a small town.”

“This is true,” April agreed. “Well, right now you won’t see her. She’s over here in Hartford with me and Lorelai. We’re getting everything set up at the Gilmore house for tomorrow.”

“Still hard to believe she really wants this whole society wedding thing. It’s so not Rory.”

April didn’t know what to say to that without hurting Jess. She had only known Rory these past three years, just slightly longer than she had known her cousin actually, but still, she had no idea what her pseudo-sister had been like back when she dated Jess. They both had to have been different then, she supposed, given that they were seventeen at the time. People changed as they grew up, but one thing April was sure didn’t change was how much people loved each other.

Jess loved Rory, that was true enough now as it had been in the past, and that much April knew for sure. He never said it, not in her hearing anyway, but she knew. Nobody could look so infatuated from simply the mere mention of a person’s name. Plus she had evidence in the form of Luke’s testimony on the subject, and a few photographs that Lorelai owned - she had never seen anyone outside of a movie look that much in love. On top of all this, April had one more source when it came to proof that Rory and Jess had been in love, more practically on Rory’s side in this case. The woman herself had confessed as much, though she had been fairly drunk at the time.

“April?” Jess prompted when she was quiet too long. “You still there?”

“I’m here” she promised. “Er, I was just thinking, I’m kinda stuck here until Lorelai and Rory want to leave, but they don’t need me much and I’d rather be spending time with you.”

“Well, can’t you get the bus home?” he checked.

“You’re kidding, right?” she sighed. “I may be fifteen, but in Dad’s head I’m still a little kid. Catching the bus by myself is strictly verboten.”

Jess took in a deep breath and let it out again. He could go and fetch April from the Gilmore house, it would be no trouble really. Luke was busy in the diner, he was bound to lend his nephew the truck for such a mission. The only issue was coming face to face with a few people he would rather avoid, and Jess knew it. Seeing Lorelai or one of the elder Gilmores would be rough, but seeing Rory again... Just thinking about her made him want to smile and cry all at the same time. She was this picture in his mind, and the ache in his heart whenever he thought of her, but she was also another man’s bride, a wife after tomorrow. Jess knew on some level he came here this particular weekend because of the wedding, he had to admit it to himself if nobody else, and yet actually facing Rory after five long years, it was oddly terrifying.

“Er, I’ll borrow the truck from Luke and come get you so we can catch up, okay?” he said to April then, shaking all other thoughts from his mind.

“That’d be great” she grinned, and he could just see it even though she was miles away on the other end of the phone. “I’ll try to be out front when you come by, but if not, swing by the poolhouse, okay?”

“Okay, kid. Be there soon.”

April ended the call with a swift goodbye and grinned to herself. This was just perfect.

 

_Saturday 21st June 2008 10:37_

“You’re sure you were out here when you lost it?” asked Rory, scrabbling around the floor on her hands and knees, searching every inch of the tile for April’s mislaid earring.

“I’ve looked everywhere else,” she insisted, trying to hide her wide smile. “I know I had both of them when we came out here with the storage boxes, and then when I got back to the patio, only one,” she explained. “See, this is why I told my dad I need to get actual pierced ears. The clip on earrings just don’t stay put.”

Rory smiled at her pseudo sister's complaining. At fifteen she was sure she was just the same, and sometimes it was nice to be reminded what it was like to be that young, the ups and downs of the teenage years. Of course too much thought about her younger days always brought Rory back to her first love with whom she had shared so much. The last person she needed to be thinking about right now was Jess Mariano.

Rory had no idea that he was within spitting distance of her right now, even as she moved around the kitchen counter, still on her knees, searching for an earring April knew she would never find down there. The teen herself had slipped outside of the door, meeting her cousin as he approached.

“Hey!” she greeted him joyfully and with the biggest hug.

“Hey, troublemaker,” he smiled as he hugged her back. “I swear you’re taller every time I see you. How is that possible?”

“Because we don’t see each other enough,” she told him definitely. “But today we will catch up. I just need to go grab my jacket...” she reopened the door to the poolhouse and went inside, knowing Jess would follow.

The second he was in she doubled back around him. Jess turned a full cicle as she darted past him, eyeing her with confusion.

“It’s in the house!” called April as she darted away.

“I thought you said...” Rory began, standing up fast, sure that April had been talking to her - she got a real shock when she realised her mistake. “Jess!”

“Rory,” he replied, stunned into silence the very next moment.

She wasn’t exactly as he remembered her, but then he supposed that would be impossible after so long. At seventeen, Rory Gilmore had been a beauty, gorgeous from head to toe, inside and out. At twenty two she was no less stunning, maybe even more so having blossomed into a woman better than anybody else Jess ever saw. Maybe he was biased, but damn, she was just beautiful.

“I... I had no idea you were here,” she shook her head, the first to come out of their joint daze, though it was a close run thing.

Five years since they saw each other last, and Rory was still bowled over by how cute he was. Maybe cute wasn’t the right word anymore, she realised, as her eyes took in his now handsome face, and the toned muscles that showed even through his shirt and black jeans. He’d let his hair grow some, didn’t gel it all up and crazy like he used to, but his eyes were exactly the same, just as deep and soulful, just as easy to drown in.

“April told me she was here with you, but I didn’t... Er, I didn’t mean to walk in on all this,” he waved a hand in a vague gesture to nothing and everything.

This was so strange. They had talked since he left five years ago, not much but it had occurred. He wrote her so many letters that he never sent, and she had once confessed to doing the same, but eventually, one of his missives had actually made it into the mail, all full of the best explanation and apology he would give for his behaviour months before.

‘I know I didn't handle it well, and I am so sorry I hurt you, Rory. You have to understand, I thought it was better if I just got out of your life. I was going nowhere, I'm still not sure where I'm headed, and you had everything going for you - Chilton, Yale, a family, a future. I couldn't even get through High School, they wouldn't let me buy Prom tickets. I ruined everything and I didn't know how to tell you. I couldn't stand one more person being disappointed in me, especially if that person was you. You meant the world to me Rory, you still do...’

Rory hadn’t replied, she had no return address to write to even if she wanted to, and she hadn’t quite figured out whether she did want to. A while later he called her, and she got a chance to say her piece, make her own amends for things she had done wrong in their ill-fated relationship. Since then there had been a few calls, pretty random stuff that occurred mostly since Luke moved into the Crap Shack and started sharing a phone line with the Gilmores. Rory would pick up and find Jess was calling, so they’d talk a little, and as awkward as it was, it had been nice. The only other correspondence had been a package, a copy of Jess’ first book in Rory’s mail box, barely a week or two after it was first published. In all that time, he stayed out of the Hollow, and they had never come face to face again. Not until today. The day before her wedding to another man.

“You either have a really sick sense of humour or just exceptionally crappy timing.”

Rory hadn’t meant that to come out like an accusation, not any of it, and yet she knew it sounded harsh the moment the words left her mouth. They had kind of come to an understanding that what happened in the past was done, and they could just be indifferent acquaintances now, preparing for a day when they might stumble upon each other at a Gilmore-Danes event in the future. Rory never expected Jess to show up for her own wedding, and she really wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

“C’mon, Ror,” he sighed, the old familiar shortening of her name coming so naturally to his lips despite their being apart so long. “You really think I’m here to blow a hole in your big day?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, folding her arms across her chest defensively. “Seems like an awfully strange coincidence that you chose this weekend to visit, after five years!”

Now that part definitely was an accusation and Jess didn’t take kindly to it.

“In case you forgot, I have family here,” he said snippily. “Luke and April, they might play at being your father and your sister, but they are my blood,” he said definitely, pointing his index finger into his own chest. “I don’t have to ask the great Rory Gilmore’s permission to come see them.”

“So why haven’t you?” she asked desperately. “In five years, Jess, you have never come to visit. They always go to you, always, and now suddenly...”

“Now suddenly, I’m touring around promoting my new novel,” he cut in. “That’s why I’m in Hartford, that’s why Stars Hollow made the itinerary, okay? Not you or your precious wedding!”

They were both yelling like crazy people, moving in closer to each other without really noticing until they were practically toe to toe. It was insane; they had been getting along okay in a vague and scarce way. A phone call here and there, it wasn’t much, but they were fine with each other’s existence at least, until they came to face each other. Suddenly it was if years of repressed emotions came bubbling to the surface, resulting in a fight that would’ve made much more sense five years ago. It may be a little late, everything already supposedly forgiven if not forgotten, but here was the explosion that never did occur before.

“I didn’t know you added random appearances to your repertoire,” said Rory cuttingly. “Pretty sure I only ever saw the disappearing part of the act.”

“You know why I left, Rory,” he shot back at her. “You know why I had to, I explained. You even said you understood.”

“Maybe I do. Maybe I do see why you think you had to leave, but that doesn’t excuse the way you did it, Jess!” she yelled angrily, tears forming in her eyes that were so very long overdue. “You couldn’t explain like a normal person, oh no, you just had to leave on a bus, without so much as goodbye. I gave you everything, everything I could,” she emphasised, her meaning all to clear to Jess. “Do you even know what that did to me? To my confidence? To my heart?!”

Her hand was at her chest as she spoke of her poor broken heart, and Jess knew just exactly how much it hurt. When he left, it had destroyed him too, but he told himself it was the best thing. Best to leave, best to stay away, let Rory have the kind of life she deserved, the kind he could never be a part of. He wasn’t worthy, he didn't know how to be. Honestly, in spite of everything, he still didn’t.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, all the fight going out of him as tears streamed from Rory’s eyes. “You know I am, Rory. You know that I’m sorry I ever hurt you, but I... I can’t take it back.”

She sniffed hard, dragged a hand across her face to remove the tears. Of course she knew. Jess had told her he was sorry years ago now, more than once, and of course she believed him. She did understand why he left, why eighteen year old him even thought leaving abruptly without a long goodbye might be easier. She understood, but it didn’t stop it hurting, even now as she recalled it all in blinding clarity. It shouldn’t matter, not after so many years, not when she was marrying another man tomorrow. Thoughts of Dean sobered her up in a heartbeat.

“It doesn’t matter now,” she told Jess, getting her bearings. “I’m sorry too, going crazy at you like that,” she shook her head. “Wow, I didn’t know I still had all that emotion in me over something so long ago.”

Jess smirked at that.

“It’s weird how these things creep up on you,” he said quietly, shoving his hands further down into his pockets.

He didn’t know what to say to her, after all these years, after the strange outburst they both just had at each other. When they were teenagers, they talked about everything. Not often anything important, but just about everything else. Now they were older, life had changed them both into new versions of themselves, and they didn’t know each other in the same way anymore. It was disheartening to realise Jess didn’t have one reasonable thing to say to Rory anymore. Well, maybe there was one thing.

“You’re still beautiful,” he told her, so out of the blue that she literally gasped at the sound of those words. “Not that I expected you to be anything else, but you are. I can’t imagine how bowled over everybody will be when you walk out in some doubtlessly stunning dress tomorrow.”

Rory blushed at the compliment, just as she always had and turned her face away.

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she confessed. “The years have been kind.”

Jess smiled and nodded once in gratitude for the sentiment. A moment later he turned away.

“I should go find April, y’know, start planning the best way to kill her for setting us up like this.”

“Oh my... There was no lost earring!” Rory gasped in sudden realisation.

She had been so caught off-guard by Jess’ arrival, she had only just now come to notice what April’s part had been in this impromptu reunion.

“Like I said, death for the cousin,” nodded Jess as he opened the poolhouse door and stepped out.

From the threshold he looked back at Rory. She pushed her hand through her hair, looking completely bewildered by what just occurred here. Jess couldn’t blame her if he were honest.

“Good luck,” he called back to her. “For tomorrow,” he smiled slightly.

“Oh. Thank you,” Rory replied, managing a shaky smile back.

“I hope this guy knows how lucky he is,” Jess added quickly, and then he was gone.

Rory was just processing that last part when her cell rang in her pocket. She grabbed it and hit the button without even looking to see who was calling.

“Hello?”

“Rory, hey,” her fiancé greeted her with a smile she could see inside her head.

“Dean. I was just... Um, what’s up?” she checked, completely flustered still and sure it was obvious to him - it was.

“Are you okay?” Dean checked worriedly. “There’s nothing wrong with the preparations for tomorrow, is there?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” she assured him, taking herself out of the poolhouse and back towards the main house where she had left her mother and grandparents bickering over the arrangements. “We had a minor glitch, but everything is fine now. Absolutely fine,” she said with a forced smile and faked cheery tone that she hoped Dean wouldn’t spot as unreal - he did.

“Rory, come on” he urged her. “Talk to me, what’s wrong?”

“Er... it’s just, well, Jess is in town,” she forced out at last.

There was a disturbing amount of silence on the line then and Rory was about to check that Dean hadn’t cut himself off when suddenly he answered her.

“So it’s true,” he said flatly. “Have you seen him?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “He came here, to pick up April, actually,” she explained. “Dean, please don’t be mad.”

“Why would I be mad?” he asked, though honestly he sounded distinctly like he was bordering on the angrier side of things. “You didn’t invite him, did you?”

“Of course not,” Rory shook her head vehemently, even though she couldn’t be seen. “He’s touring around promoting his new book. It has nothing to do with me or our wedding, I swear.”

Another long silence followed that statement, during which Rory was practically holding her breath. Dean didn’t exactly have a temper, but he could get pretty mad sometimes, especially when he got jealous. Rory never really gave him any reason to feel envious of any other guy, but she was highly aware of the fact that he often felt that way regardless. Jess was a sore point with them. The guy who broke Rory’s heart before she ever even met Dean, it didn’t thrill her soon-to-be husband that she ever forgave the guy, but he got over himself eventually, and Rory never did expect them to come face to face. Now there was a slim chance that they would. That was strange and not at all comfortable for Rory.

“Well, hopefully he’ll stay out of your way from now on,” said Dean eventually before changing the subject back to the reason for his phone call in the first place. “I actually wanted to check on you for a reason. When your grandmother called and mentioned the reporter coming to cover the wedding, I wasn’t sure you’d be happy about it, but...”

“I’m sorry, what?” Rory gasped, just as she reached the dining room of the main house.

Both her grandparents and her mother all looked to her in unison, and Emily in particular looked awfully shifty.

“Dean, I’m going to have to call you back,” Rory told him absently, ending the call, eyes permanently fixed on her grandmother’s face. “Grandma, do you have some kind of wedding surprise planned for me that I don’t know about yet?” she checked, clearly less than amused.

“Why yes, Rory, actually I do,” she told her, with a smile. “Maybe we could all go and sit down, and I’ll fill you in on the details.”

Lorelai looked from her daughter to her mother and back before following both them and her father through to the living room.

“Yeah, this isn’t good,” she muttered as they went. “Not good at all.”


	4. Chapter 3

_Saturday 21st June 2008 10:54_

“A reporter. Covering my wedding,” she said too calmly.

Lorelai winced, just waiting for the real emtions to show. Rory was a fairly docile person as a rule. Sure, she had her moments when she lost it, just like anybody else, but for the most part she kept her cool, she let others make choices and she didn’t argue because it was simply easier not to kick up a fuss unless it was absolutely necessary. Right now she was having trouble being her usual calm and happy self.

It wasn’t that she really expected her wedding to one hundred percent perfect. Nothing was ever that good, something always went slightly askew, that was just the way life worked. They had contingencies for most things. There was a marquee out back in case it rained and the outdoor ceremony had to be abandoned. Extra food was being prepared in case of last minute guests, and extra champagne brought in too, just to be on the safe side. Rory had her bags packed for her honeymoon already in case there wasn’t time later, her going away clothes and even two back up outfits all laid out in one of the rooms upstairs. There was nothing that could go wrong with regards to any of these things, so Rory might’ve known something else would happen instead. She had thought the only wrench in the workings of her wedding would be Jess’ unexpected arrival. Turned out she was wrong.

“Rory, now come along, this isn’t a bad thing,” said her grandfather with a smile. “There are people who would kill for the opportunity to be featured in a local but very respectable newspaper like the Hartford Gazette.”

“Yes, and you know it was Mitchum Huntzberger himself that suggested it,” Emily smiled. “I promise you, Rory, it was all be very tasteful. No scandalous quotes from so-called friends or awkward behind-the-scenes photographs,” she promised. “We’re not one of those awful ‘celebrity’ families looking for publicity. This is a notable social occasion, like Grace Kelly marrying the Prince of Monaco.”

Lorelai tried to hold in the snort of laughter that wanted to escape. She failed.

“You’re not helping,” her mother told her snippily.

“Hey, I’m not trying to,” she said, hands held up as she shook her head. “Mom, you had to know this wasn’t cool, especially not without asking Rory and Dean if they were okay with it.”

“Oh, no. She already asked Dean,” said Rory accusingly. “He just called me, expecting me to know that some reporter guy was coming over here to delve into my private life.”

“It’s really not like that, Rory,” her grandpa assured her, but she stood up from her seat and turned away.

This was not okay, not at all. As if Jess being here this weekend hadn’t spun her head around enough. Now she was going to have a newspaper reporter tailing her for the next twenty four hours, meaning keeping not just herself on best behaviour, but her mom, April, Luke, and all the guests too. Anything embarrassing would be in print for the whole world to see. Rory felt sick.

The doorbell rang, and immediately she moved to go answer it, even as her grandmother reminded her they had a maid for that.

“It’ll be Dean,” she assured her, getting a real surprise when she opened up the door and found it wasn’t her fiance at all. “Logan?” she frowned a little as a familiar figure in a grey suit turned to face her.

“Hey, Ace,” he grinned. “Not happy to see me?”

“I... well, what are you...?” she began, stopping short when she saw the press badge hanging on his jacket and the camera bag attached to it. “No way!” Rory gasped.

“You didn’t know I was coming, did you?” Logan frowned. “Rory, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to side-swipe you. My Dad said he agreed all of this with you...”

“Your father spoke to my grandparents,” she shook her head. “They literally only just told me a reporter was coming and they certainly didn’t say it would be you.”

“They probably didn’t know that part,” he leaned in some to whisper. “Between you and me, I pulled some strings. I mean, hey, I thought better an old friend cover your wedding than a stranger who could say anything, right?”

Rory smiled at his thoughtfulness for all of a second before the frown returned.

“We were never exactly friends,” she realised aloud.

“Ouch, Ace!” Logan faked a deep wound to the heart. “You got me. Really, that was just harsh. We got along, didn’t we? All those years on the Yale Daily News together. I thought we were some kind of friends at least,” he winked.

_“Hey Ace. I’ve got a proposition for you. I’ll help you with your article. Get you the inside scoop. You just have to agree to a few conditions”._

_“What conditions?”_

_“The first condition is you have to agree before you know the conditions. What do you say, Ace? You in or out?”_

_“I’m in”._

“I’m not sure I remember anything friend-like with us,” she smiled a little then. “I remember the guy who rarely handed in his articles on time. I remember a few drunken passes you made at me too.”

“And yet you seem to have conveniently forgotten the sober passes I made at you,” he said grinning. “I never regretted any of it, only that I didn’t try harder to prise you away from that upstanding man you plan on marrying tomorrow.”

Rory rolled her eyes and fought the blush that wanted to rise in her cheeks.

“Well, no matter how hard you tried it never would’ve worked,” she told him definitely, even as she ushered him inside. “Besides, even if we had ever gone out together, you would’ve gotten bored with me. I never saw you with the same girl more than once the entire time we were at Yale together.”

Logan laughed, mostly because he knew she was right, as he followed Rory back to the living room. Lorelai was a little surprised to be introduced to Logan and find he was the same guy her daughter sometimes mentioned in her college stories. Maybe it was a good thing that the reporter covering the wedding was a friend, or an acquaintance that Rory got along with at least. That should guarantee what Emily and Richard promised was true, that the article would be tasteful and decent.

Lorelai wouldn’t be so worried if it wasn’t for a certain almost-step-nephew visiting Connecticut this very weekend. Of all the occasions for Jess to come around, this had to be the worst timing. She would like to say he did it on purpose, but Lorelai had no proof of that. So far she hadn’t seen Jess herself and assumed nobody else in the wedding party had either, except for Luke who had gone to meet his nephew on purpose. Lorelai would love to keep it that way and have Jess do his book stuff and leave again without even crossing paths with her baby girl. It seemed unlikely though, and if this reporter guy got to hear about Rory’s past romance with the now semi-famous author, Lorelai didn’t like to think about the headline on the socialite pages. It just didn’t bear thinking about.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 11:02_

“So I’m here for the first six weeks of the Summer and then back with my mom for the last six,” April explained to Jess across the diner table, between spoonfuls of ice cream sundae. “For a while it was going to be the other way around, but then I would’ve missed Rory’s wedding and she really, really needed me to be bridesmaid.”

“I’ll bet she did,” he smiled at his cousin’s enthusiasm for both her role in the big day and her ice-cream. “Y’know you must fit right in with the Gilmores eating the way you do. That much dessert at this time of the morning? It’s not normal.”

“It’s not that early, and it’s a special occasion,” she shrugged.

“The wedding isn’t until tomorrow,” he reminded her, wishing they didn’t have to keep bringing that up, and yet there it was again.

“I meant you being here. Duh!” she rolled her eyes, finishing off her sundae and letting the spoon clatter into the glass. “All done. You can stop looking so pained about the fact I am a heinous person who eats ice-cream out of something other than a cone now.”

“Sundaes are exempt from the rule,” he assured her. “It becomes a whole other dessert when you add all the other ingredients”

“Right,” April nodded, elongating the word. “There’s a lot of crazy in this family. It’s no wonder we’re so closely entwined with the Gilmores.”

“Agreed,” Jess smirked some as he sipped at his coffee.

Luke listened in from behind the counter. It occurred to him that he could join the pair at the table, but honestly, he was fine just as he was. Jess and April getting along was a good thing as far as he was concerned. The two of them being only children and from separated parents meant they had little in the way of true family. Now they had each other, as well as Luke, and he was glad about that. He also thought it was a good thing that he had heard the wedding come up more than once now without incident. Maybe Jess really was just here for his book tour. Maybe he truly had got past what he and Rory used to share. It would be really good for the both of them if that were true.

The phone rang suddenly, jolting Luke from his thoughts. April and Jess didn’t even notice he was gone.

“So, you do know that the whole town will be talking about the fact you’re here by now,” said April thoughtfully.

“Yes, that is how it works,” her cousin agreed, finishing off his coffee. “Taylor is probably reinforcing his door against me as we speak.”

“I don’t think anybody expects you to be pranking people or creating mayhem like your teen years stories,” she rolled her eyes at him. “The main question is probably going to be if you’re back for Rory.”

“April...” said Jess in a warning tone that seemed to have no effect at all on his cousin.

“C’mon, this is me you’re talking to, not Miss Patty or Babette, not my dad or anybody else that’s going to judge,” she said, leaning across the table closer to her cousin. “You can tell me, do you still love Rory?”

Jess opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again without a word. The way he ducked his head and wouldn’t speak told April what she needed to know, but she still wanted to hear the truth from him.

“It’s a pretty easy question,” she prompted. “Mostly yes or no. Do you still love her?”

Jess let out a long breath, pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off a headache. He so didn’t want to be having this conversation, with April of all people, but he knew from experience she wasn’t going to let this go. Leaning in across the table so nobody else heard his whispered reply to her question, he finally answered.

“Do I still love Rory?” he repeated her words first. “Yes. To my dying day.”

Jess stared across at April, his own face expressionless as he watched her own go through various phases from happy to sad. Jess didn’t ask why. He wouldn’t have had the chance even if he wanted to as Luke came over and broke up the conversation.

“So, that was Lorelai on the phone,” he explained, clapping his hands together. “We need to get over to the Gilmore house,” he told April. “There’s some kind of fancy lunch happening, and a newspaper reporter that the whole wedding party has to meet, so...”

“A reporter?” asked Jess curiously, his interest piqued by that fact.

“Covering the wedding,” Luke nodded.

“Emily’s idea?”

“Who else?”

April shook her head.

“I don’t need to be there,” she insisted. “I can just stay here with Jess. We were hanging out, it was fun, and I hardly ever get to see him...”

“Hey, you should go, kid. It’s cool,” her cousin assured her. “I gotta go anyway, I’ve got that book signing at three,” he reminded her, checking his watch to see how long he had until he should move.

“It’s barely ten after eleven,” said April, looking at the clock on the wall. “So, why doesn’t Jess come to lunch with us ?” she asked her father. “We’re all going to Hartford, he’d be in exactly the right place for his book signing at three, and he wouldn’t have to eat alone.”

Luke knew it made sense, or it would at least if all the other people at this lunch wouldn’t hate the idea. Lorelai might be okay with it, maybe. Possibly Rory too, after all, things were supposed to be resolved between Rory and Jess. The Gilmore elders wouldn’t be thrilled, but honestly, that didn’t bother Luke too much. He looked at Jess for some kind of reaction to April’s idea, whether it be positive or negative. So far he had made no comment or any readable expression to give his uncle a clue as to what was going on inside his head.

Honestly, Jess’ immediate reaction was going to be ‘no way’. He had his reasons to stay away, and that was a pretty lengthy list too. On the other hand, he didn’t object to seeing Rory again, or to making her grandmother blow a fuse.

“Come on!” April urged when nobody answered her. “Dad, seriously, you don’t want to leave Jess here all alone, with no way to get to Hartford for his signing, do you?”

Luke let out a long breath, running a hand over his face and then adjusting his hat for good measure.

“Why don’t you come?” he said to Jess at last.

His nephew looked amazed. He wasn’t sure what decision to make himself, but he really had expected his uncle to come down on the side of leaving him behind.

“You’re kidding, right?” he checked, wide eyed and slack-jawed.

Luke shrugged his broad shoulders.

“No, I mean, I thought you and Rory fixed things, at least enough to be in the same room together,” he reasoned. “Besides, she’s marrying someone else, she moved on, and our Rory does not hold grudges. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Jess tried not to smirk as he looked away a moment. Rory wasn’t the only issue and they both knew it, but Luke was just one more person who wouldn’t mind seeing the elder Gilmores squirm in their own home. After all Luke had done for Jess, he figured he owed him one, possibly a lot more than just one in fact.

“Okay, fine. I’ll come,” he agreed, amused by how pleased that made April at least. “Thanks.”


	5. Chapter 4

_Saturday 21st June 2008 12:54_

There must have been a more awkward group of people than this somewhere in time and space, but if there was, Lorelai wasn’t sure who those people might be or what the hell their deal was. There had been some truly hideous and awful moments in this house and Lorelai had always been in the middle of them. Chief among them, she recalled the conversation when she was forced to confess to her parents that she was pregnant at the age of barely sixteen. Still, she never regretted going ahead and having her baby, raising her the best she could, primarily alone. Rory had turned out so well, better than Lorelai ever could’ve imagined. Mother and daughter had an awful lot in common, but right now, Lorelai was only glad that her daughter could behave with a little more dignity than she herself when put under severe pressure.

“So, those in the know seem to think this book is going to go one of two ways,” said Logan, leaning across the table to speak to Jess. “If you can build on the success of the first one, sales could be sky high, but rumour has it the first can’t be beat and therefore the second is predestined to disappoint.”

Luke looked sideways at his nephew wishing now he hadn’t invited him here. Hell, Luke kind of wished he wasn't here himself. This reporter guy was bugging him already, and he could practically feel the frustration radiating from Lorelai. This was not a fun situation, and if this Logan character kept on goading Jess, he would probably snap, no matter how much more grown up he was now than he had been years ago when last in Stars Hollow.

“I doubt I’m the person to ask,” he said, before putting another forkful of food into his mouth.

April frowned and then spoke up herself.

“Jess’ first book was excellent, but that doesn’t mean his second book isn’t just as good,” she said easily. “Do you read much, Mr Huntzberger?” she asked him.

Logan smiled politely.

“You can just call me Logan, and no, unfortunately, I don’t get much free time to read as many books as I’d like to.”

“Then it’s probably better if you don’t try to delve into the inner workings of my cousin’s literary works, Logan,” she advised with a sweet smile. “You’ll only get lost.”

Jess smirked some, tried not to choke on his lunch. As it was it took a long sip of water to stop him from making a fool of himself at the table. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Emily wincing at April’s words, but he was pretty sure he also caught Rory smiling.

“So, what exactly does you covering our wedding entail?” asked Dean in the silence that followed.

Jess let his eyes fall on the guy who would marry Rory tomorrow. He wasn’t at all the kind of guy Jess had expected, not for her, though maybe he should’ve known the great Dean Forester was simply everything he himself was not. Overly tall, clean-cut, terribly polite to the point of bowing and scraping with the grandparents, and constantly smiling at Rory, following her around like a big dumb puppy who didn’t know any better. It was pretty clear he was the anti-Jess, and that made Jess wonder how much of Rory’s marrying Forrester had to do with the man himself, and how much was simply a very strong reaction to Jess leaving the way he had. Maybe that was big-headed, but he couldn't help but wonder.

“The last thing I want to do is intrude on your special day,” Logan was saying when Jess started paying attention again.

He hadn’t really known he was staring at Rory until she looked up, met his eyes for all of two seconds and then very deliberately looked away again. Lorelai noticed, but now certainly wasn’t a good time to mention it.

“Basically, I’m here to report on the happy day, the fact that the Gilmore heir is marrying the man she loves, and how elegant the whole occasion is,” Logan smiled easily. “Nothing sordid or underhand, just a window into the lives of a typical Hartford family that goes back generations,” he explained. “Of course, I’d love to know a little more about your family too. We’re not snobs, Mr Forester.”

“Of course not,” Dean smiled back at Logan though it was quite clear the expression was a fake. “And please, like you told April, we should all be on first name terms here. Call me Dean.”

“Dean it is,” Logan nodded. “Y’know, Rory told me so much about her mother, the famous Luke and April, but I really don’t know much about you,” he said thoughtfully. “You were always just ‘my boyfriend Dean’ and that was that.”

Rory squirmed in her seat, and there wasn’t a person at the table who failed to notice, Jess most of all perhaps. He knew, the same as everyone else, that Rory and Logan went to college together. They were acquaintances, maybe even a sort of friends from their time at Yale, that much had been explained before everybody sat down to lunch today, but as far as Jess could tell Huntzberger had been after a lot more from Rory. She had remained faithful, Jess was pretty sure on that. As much as they had all changed over the years, he didn’t doubt for a second that Rory Gilmore was as good and true as she had always been, but Logan sure knew how to ruffle her feathers, that was for certain.

Conversation had moved on without Jess really noticing. He tuned in again just in time to hear Emily tell the maid they were ready for dessert. The dainty lunch plates were swiftly removed and there was a pause before a fruity dessert course was served. Richard tried to start a more generic discussion with Luke about cars, but that went precisely nowhere when a fracas started up in the entranceway. Jess knew the voice was familiar but it took him a while to realise why.

Rory stood up from her seat because she had heard who was coming and knew she would have to deal. The whirlwind bursting into the Gilmore mansion, luggage and all, was Paris Geller.

“Oh my God, Paris!” Rory rushed at her friend. “What are you doing here?”

“Can’t get married without your bridesmaid, Gilmore,” the other woman shrugged easily, as they breifly and somewhat awkwardly hugged. “Had a hell of a problem getting a flight and convincing Doyle not to be an ass about going it alone to his family reunion in Ireland, but hey, you knew I’d get here eventually, right?”

“I hoped,” said Rory with a bright smile.

Of course, it was true enough that she did have other bridesmaids, not just Paris, but April was so young and Lane was so busy all the time since the twins came down with the chicken pox, Paris was actually a pretty welcome sight, a little support right when Rory needed it.

“Oh, we’re almost done with lunch, but...”

“It’s fine,” Paris waved away her concern, eyes scanning around the table to faces she knew well, and a couple that were less familiar. “Well, isn’t this an interesting development... or two,” she said as her gaze landed first on Jess and then on Logan.

“Paris,” the former nodded.

“Ah, the inimitable Paris Geller,” said the latter, getting up from his seat to come over. “Always a pleasure.”

“For you maybe,” she replied acidly, before giving her full attention to the owners of the house. “Emily, Richard, forgive me for bursting in unannounced in the middle of lunch, but it’s been a hell of a last twenty four hours, and I’m afraid social etiquette had to be ignored for the sake of my making it to the wedding on time.”

“That’s quite alright, Paris,” said Emily graciously. “You’re here now, and we’re very glad to have you. I’ll just call for the maid to come help you upstairs with your bags and show you to your room.”

“That’s very kind, Emily, thank you.” 

Things seemed as if they were about to settle back down again when suddenly Lorelai’s cell began ringing loudly, no regular bell sound emanating from her purse, but an eighties classic that had her mother wincing and Luke rolling his eyes in a second.

“Damnit!” she complained, rifling in her purse, even as Emily told her that cell phones should be switched off during meal times. “I told Michel to only call me in a dire emergency, Mom,” she countered, finding her phone and getting up. “It’s dire,” she said definitely as she accepted the call and walked away.

“If it’s dire, she might need me,” said Luke vaguely, throwing his napkin down to practically run after his girlfriend.

Rory had gone upstairs with Paris, and Emily started chattering away to the nearest maid about taking away the food of those who had left the table. Richard turned to Dean to ask how his speech was coming for the wedding and who his best man was going to be. That just left Logan and Jess to stare acrss the table at each other, with April as their only audience.

“Y’know, I’d love to do a side piece on the great American author that is Jess Mariano,” the reporter said thoughtfully. “Although, actually, you might be able to give me some more insight for my main article. Didn’t you know Rory before she even met Dean?”

That got the groom’s attention in a second, whatever Richard was saying now completely ignored. Jess didn’t say a word, barely reacted to Logan’s question, but he pressed on regardless.

“So what was it? A brother-sister thing? Just good friends? Or high school romance maybe? Rock around the clock, two straws in the milkshake?”

“They dated,” said Dean suddenly.

Jess wasn’t surprised the guy knew about that, just genuinely stunned that he would be the one to say it in front of the newspaper guy and all.

“They did,” Logan nodded. “You embarrassed about that Jess?”

“Why would I be?” he shrugged easily. “I’m just the guy Rory dated in high school, he’s the one she’s marrying,” he said, gesturing towards Dean, though his eyes never left Logan’s own. “Ask your questions to him. I’ll bet he knows everything there is to know about Rory Gilmore,” he declared, though the smirk that pulled at his lips suggested he might not entirely believe it.

Dean certainly took it like some kind of challenge or even threat when Jess glanced his way and pushed back his chair to stand. Emily was long gone and so Jess looked to Richard and nodded his head once.

“Thanks for lunch, Mr Gilmore, and I hope everything runs smoothly for your family this weekend,” he said, with all the politeness he possessed. “If you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere else I need to be.”

With that he left the room, and April wasted no time in scrambling from her chair and going after him. She caught up to him in the entranceway and grabbed at his sleeve.

“That’s it? You’re just leaving?” she checked.

“You know I have a book signing this afternoon, April,” he reminded her, checking his watch. “Honestly? I need to walk off this great time I just had before I start meeting my public, so I gotta go,” he impressed upon her.

His cousin sighed heavily.

“Fine,” she conceded. “But do not leave without saying goodbye, okay?”

“Not a chance, kid,” he promised, pulling her into a one-armed hug and kissing the top of her head. “I’ll see you later.”

He turned to the door, but April couldn’t help it, she had to say one more thing before he left, even if he wasn’t heading out of town just yet.

“Jess? Are you sure you only came back here this weekend for the book tour?” she asked.

His hand stilled on the doorknob, the carefully wrapped gift concealed in his inside coat pocket feeling like a lead weight suddenly. Jess turned slowly, glanced towards the stairs, the dining room, and back. He shook his head because he knew this was a dumb idea, and yet he couldn’t help himself somehow.

“Create a distraction,” he whispered to his cousin who smiled widely.

“How big?” she checked.

Jess rolled his eyes.

“Don’t fake appendicitis or anything, just keep Forester and Huntzberger from going upstairs, okay? The elders too, if you can.”

“You got it,” she grinned, hurrying off to do as asked.

Jess watched her go, barely holding in a chuckle of laughter. Then, just as soon as he was sure the coast was clear, he snuck on up the stairs in search of Rory. Her voice wasn’t so loud, but Paris’ particular tone tended to carry. It didn’t take long to find the room she was making her own, and when Rory stepped out of it, five minutes later, Jess was leaning casually against the opposite wall.

“What are you doing?” 

“Not much,” he shrugged, watching a whole host of emotions play across Rory’s face as he stared at her.

She always got unnerved by him, from the very beginning. That was some power to have, Jess had found, to just be able to look at a person and make them so unsure of themselves. It wasn’t like he had a monopoly on it. There had been enough times when Rory used her persuasive techniques on him and got her own way. He had been a slave for her in the beginning, though she never really seemed to know it, never knowingly took advantage of the fact he was in love from the first moment he saw her. He wondered if she ever understood quite how hard he had fallen in the beginning, how none of those deep feelings ever really went away.

“Jess, please,” she sighed, folding her arms across her chest defensively. “Just... just go away,” she urged him, her voice desperate, her eyes everywhere but on him.

Jess took pity on her.

“I will, tomorrow,” he promised. “But, er... well, first I need to give you something.”

Reaching inside his coat he pulled out a small wrapped gift, distinctive enough in shape that Rory was already sure it was a book, as gifts between them had so often been years before. “You get gifts for your wedding, right?” he said when she didn’t take the parcel from him after several seconds of him holding it out to her.

Rory wavered a moment then shook her head.

“There’s a pile downstairs, add whatever it is to that,” she said, turning to walk away.

“Can’t.”

One word from Jess and she stopped mid-step to look back at him. He pushed off the wall and stood beside her, trying to hand the present to her again.

“See, it’s not really a gift for the happy couple, it’s just for you.”

Rory couldn’t explain why it felt like a dangerous thing to take that book out of his hands. It had to be a book, it always was with them. They traded volumes back and forth, new and second-hand, bought and borrowed. It had been their thing, one constant between them that had everyone else puzzled. Normal couples bought each other varied gifts, sometimes flowers or chocolates, maybe jewellery, some piece of clothing they really wanted. With them, it was books, always books.

With shaking hands that she couldn’t quite explain, Rory took the gift from Jess’ hands. She turned it over and peeled back the wrapping, her eyes going wide as she saw which book in particular he had given to her - Howl by Allen Ginsberg.

“Why?” she asked so softly that if Jess hadn’t been standing impossibly close, he never would’ve heard her.

“You know why,” he replied, making her look up fast and meet his eyes.

_“You bought a copy. I told you I’d lend you mine.”_

_“It is yours.”_

_“You stole my book.”_

_“Nope, borrowed it. I just wanted to put some notes in the margins for you.”_

_“You’ve read this before.”_

_“About forty times.”_

_“I thought you didn’t read much.”_

_“Well, what is much? Goodnight, Rory”_

_“Goodnight, Dodger.”_

Rory swallowed hard as the remembered conversation played over in her head one more time. She had known Jess for only a few hours when that exchange occurred, but she knew it as if it had been yesterday, knew the look in his eyes and the smirk on his lips as he spoke too, and she saw it all again in her mind’s eyes as she looked at him now. He hadn’t changed so very much, but she had, at least Rory thought she had until she saw him again today. Five years seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye the moment he walked in.

“Jess...”

“I figured the one you had, well, I messed it up,” he said, referring to the book, breaking eye contact to look at the thin volume in her hands. “I messed that up, just like I messed up everything else,” he said bitterly. “Now you’re getting this fresh start, a new life... with Dean,” he cleared his throat. “New book for a new start. Besides, I already sent you a first edition of my new book, couldn’t bring another one of those.”

He smiled when he said it, like it was the best joke. Rory didn’t think it was all that funny really. Still, he was trying to do a nice thing, talking about her fresh start with a new man and a new life as if he were pleased about it. Rory couldn’t see a reason why he shouldn’t be happy for her. They were friends these days, or friendly at least. There was nothing to fight over anymore.

“Thank you, Jess,” she said, for the book really, and yet somehow it seemed to run deeper than that, and they both felt it.

“You’re welcome, Rory,” he smiled, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “Enjoy your wedding.”

He moved to walk away and Rory couldn’t understand why it took her so long to get her bearings back after a simple peck on the cheek from a guy she hadn’t seen in years. It couldn’t mean anything, the way that odd and familiar tingling feeling ran through her body just from having Jess so close again.

“I’m having a party tonight,” she blurted out, wondering if it was really her own voice a second later as Jess looked back at her from the top of the stairs. “Er, it’s kind of a combined bachelor/bachelorette party thing. The folks in Stars Hollow wanted to celebrate with us, and given you’re in town... Well, you could come, if you want.”

Jess stared at her for a long time before he answered that, and when he did the response he gave was vague at best.

“Maybe,” he said, managing a brief but genuine smile and a nod before he turned and continued walking.

Dean passed Jess halfway down the stairs, which explained a pained looking April in the entranceway. Jess was quick to assure his cousin it was fine, he had done what he had to do. He quickly left, never knowing what might be said by the soon-to-be-married couple he left behind.

When Dean reached Rory she was still staring at the place where Jess had been stood, hardly noticing her boyfriend at all, until he put a hand to her shoulder and spoke.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yes,” she promised, finding a smile as she looked at him. “Jess was just... He brought me a gift,” she explained, showing Dean the copy of Ginsberg’s Howl in her hands.

He frowned at the sight of it.

“Don’t you already have that exact book at home?” he checked.

Rory opened her mouth and closed it again, reconsidering.

“Not exactly,” she said eventually, flipping the pages that contained only the printed text they should.

Somewhere at home she still had her first copy, the one she bought as a teen, the very same that Jess had briefly stolen and filled with margin notes that she had poured over with interest and delight. She probably knew those notes as well as she knew Ginsberg’s words, perhaps even better. The thought of it brought an odd smile to her lips that Dean wasn’t particularly happy to see. He never met Jess until today, and already he hated him. His dislike of the man was by proxy, but it was very real. Jess had broken Rory’s heart, Dean had put that heart back together, at least that was how Lorelai described the situation. The last thing this wedding needed was an old flame.

Rory closed the book and looked up at Dean again when she heard a sigh escape his lips. It was so wrong of her to stand here reminiscing about good times in the old days with Jess. He had been great, her first boyfriend, her first love, but that was years ago, feelings that ought to be dead and buried. Rory had Dean now, he had loved her for years, been faithful to her, and tomorrow he was going to marry her. Without a moment’s pause, she reached up and kissed his lips.

“I love you,” she whispered as they parted. “You know that, right?”

“Of course,” he smiled, fingers pushing her hair back behind her ear. “I love you too, that’s why we’re getting married tomorrow.”

“Yes, we are,” she agreed with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes somehow.


	6. Chapter 5

_Saturday 21st June 2008 14:32_

“How you holding up, babe?” asked Lorelai, voice and eyes both full of concern for her daughter.

Lunch had been quite the event. Between the current boyfriend, the ex, and the reporter, Lorelai had just been waiting for some kind of fight or at least mild hysterics. Instead, things had run surprisingly smoothly, and Rory had remained calm and graceful throughout. Lorelai knew from experience that her baby girl didn’t necessarily feel that way on the inside.

“I’m fine,” Rory assured her mother with a brave smile. “I’ll be better when today and tomorrow are over,” she sighed, rubbing her forehead as a headache threatened.

Lorelai frowned at her daughter’s words. A girl should be excited about her upcoming wedding, somewhat stressed too, no doubt, but mostly happy at least. For a while, Lorelai did believe Rory was happy with Dean, happy to be getting engaged, getting married. The cracks had developed here and there, but she tried to ignore it, convincing herself she was being dumb, just worried about losing her little girl as she grew into a woman, soon a wife. Now, Lorelai wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Y’know, Rory, if anything is bothering you, if you’re not sure about the whole wedding thing...” she said carefully, but apparently not carefully enough.

“Mom!” her daughter gasped in shock. “I’m not having second thoughts about marrying Dean. God, we’ve been engaged for two years now, we’re so happy and solid, why would you even think I was reconsidering?”

She was too mad about it. Lorelai had to wonder if that was because she was seriously offended or if she was just protesting too much. Either way, this conversation had fight written all over it. She sighed.

“Babe, I’m not questioning the fact that you love Dean, or that you’re committed to trying to make things work with him,” she told her, a hand on her arm. “I’m just... I want you to be sure, because your happiness? Pretty much the most important thing in the whole world to me,” she reminded her. “And I mean, with Logan hanging around, not to mention Jess being back...”

“Oh my... I can’t believe you just... Mom, I never dated Logan, I barely even considered it, and as for me and Jess, we have been over for a very long time!” she yelled too loudly, realising it when a maid shuffled past at top speed, embarrassed to be getting caught in the middle of the fight. “Mom, Jess left me,” she said at a more reasonable level. “He broke my heart, and Dean fixed it for me. He is the man I love, he was so patient in the beginning, so kind and thoughtful. I owe him so much.”

“I know that,” Lorelai assured her. “Believe me, if anybody asked me which guy most deserves a sainthood, I’d be there yelling ‘Dean Forester for the win’, but... but I just worry about you, sweetheart.”

“Well, don’t. Please,” Rory shook her head, backing up towards the door. “I’m fine. Everything is fine and tomorrow when me and Dean say our vows and are pronounced man and wife, maybe you’ll finally believe me.”

With that she flounced out of the door, jacket in hand, only to be confronted by the sight of Logan, leaning on his car in the driveway.

“Hey, Ace,” he smiled, pushing off the Porsche and coming over to her.

“Do you have to call me that?” asked Rory grumpily as she pulled on her jacket.

“You never minded before,” he noted, studying her curiously. “I mean, what better nickname was there for the best reporter at the Yale Daily News? They don’t just make anybody editor, y’know?”

Rory let out a long sigh, pushed her hands back through her hair. At some point her stress levels seemed to have got to the most ridiculous heights. She could blame her mother, her grandmother, Paris, Jess, they had all wound her up in their own ways, and Logan was fast putting himself on the list too. Still, at least he was an escape route. Getting home to Stars Hollow meant going back inside and facing her mom again. Right now, Rory couldn’t handle that, she needed to cool off first.

“Were you waiting out here for me?” she asked Logan, almost sounding hopeful, he thought.

“I was hoping I could drive you back to Stars Hollow, get a tour of the little place that raised the great Rory Gilmore,” he explained with a wide smile. “That sound okay to you?”

“Buy me a cup of coffee on the way and I might consider marrying you instead,” she joked, immediately wishing she hadn’t when Logan’s eyebrows raised so high they nearly flew off his head completely. “Not serious,” she confirmed in muttered words as she passed by him to the passenger side of the car.

Logan chuckled, shook his head and followed her, opening up the door of the Porsche for her to get in. Rory was always kind of an enigma to Logan. She was technically rich and entitled like him, the granddaughter of the great Richard and Emily Gilmore, attended Chilton and graduated valedictorian, yet she was so down to earth, so normal and small town in her ways sometimes. Rory excelled at Yale, was a top flight reporter on the college paper, and even made editor. There were big plans in place, Logan knew. Journalistic tendencies of the Christianne Amanpour kind, that’s what he heard. Now everything had changed. The young woman with such dreams was now getting married, to some Farmer John type from a small town in the middle of nowhere, settling for a job at a local paper, presumably looking forward to cooking dinner and raising kids. It didn’t add up to Logan, and he wanted to know the whole story, more for himself than even for his article, truth be told.

“If we’re going, can we just go already?” asked Rory through the passenger side window, when Logan dawdled too long in reaching the driver’s door.

“Yes, ma’am,” he saluted as he joined her in the car. “First stop, the nearest coffee shop,” he promised.

Everyone knew the only thing to help calm a Gilmore in crisis was caffeine. Today Rory was starting to wonder if even her precious coffee would help, but she was willing to give it a good try.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 15:11_

“Thanks a lot,” said Jess, smiling politely as he handed a signed copy of his book to the overly giddy girl at the front of the line who just told him he was ‘the best author ever’.

As she walked away, still giggling like a crazy person, Jess had to wonder if she even understood the point of the novel. Supposedly she read The Subsect forty times or more, and its sequel eight times already. That was impressive in and of itself, but it meant little to nothing if she wasn’t understanding the deeper meanings of either book. Judging people on first glance wasn’t really fair, Jess knew that better than most, but sometimes it was difficult not to try and pick out real fans of his work from those who dug the way he looked in the picture on the back cover.

“Hi,” he forced a smile for the next person in line, a guy this time, who seemed almost a little embarrassed to be here.

“Hey, Mr Mariano. Er, could you sign it to Alice, and wish her happy birthday maybe?” he asked, gesturing to the book Jess was about to write in.

“Sure,” he replied, asking no further questions as he wrote the message and signed his name.

“That’s cool, thanks,” the guy smiled as he checked out the personalised wording. “I’m sorry, I’m not really much of a reader. My girlfriend... fiancée,” he corrected himself with a nervous grin. “She’s sort of a literary nut, and she swears your books are just the best. She goes on and on about the subtext and the imagery... I don’t really get it, which probably sounds stupid to you, but this’ll mean a lot to her. I’m about to be the most popular guy on the planet,” he chuckled.

“No problem, man,” Jess smiled right back. “Er, and congratulations on the engagement,” he added, thinking he probably should.

The stranger nodded in thanks and turned to walk away. Jess watched him go, unable to help in comparing the guy to Forester. It wasn’t as if two people had to be smart in the same areas or even interested in all the same things. Opposites were what attracted, that’s what everybody said, and yet there had to be some kind of overlap in interests and hobbies, Jess was certain. He wondered what there was that connected Rory and Dean. They could be in love, they could look out for each other, that was fine, but what did they have in common? Rory was a lot smarter than most people, and she could probably runs rings around her fiancé on most topics. The other guy, the reporter, he was definitely smarter, but too rich and cocky to tempt Rory away from safe, dependable Dean. Maybe that was all it was. Maybe Dean just seemed like a safe place to hide after what Jess had done. He was the wild boy that broke the good girl’s heart, that was what everybody thought, from Lorelai and Luke to Rory’s friends, everybody in Stars Hollow, Jess was sure enough on that. Still, they ought to have something in common, something to talk about, otherwise how did they intend to get along in a marriage that was supposed to last forever?

“Mr Mariano?” 

A finger poking him in the shoulder got his attention back to the task at hand. He mumbled an apology to the assistant and painted the smile back on is face as he looked to the next person in line.

“Can I just say I think you’re amazing!” the pretty girl gushed terribly.

Jess would like to be flattered and grateful, but all he could think, as he gazed into bright blue eyes, was that she wasn’t anywhere near as pretty as Rory Gilmore.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 15:41_

“So, feel better for the coffee?” asked Logan as Rory tipped her head back to get the last drops from the to go cup.

“Yes and no,” she admitted just as soon as she was done. “Coffee solves a lot of problems, but it can’t fix everything.”

Logan wasn’t sure what to make of that statement. It was true, obviously. He tended to substitute alcohol for coffee when things were getting to him, but it was still true enough that a beverage couldn’t fix all your problems. What issues Rory was struggling with, he couldn’t be sure. As they hit the outer limits of Stars Hollow, he decided to dive in at the top of the list and see what happened.

“Is this about your dad?” he asked, getting Rory's full attention in an instant. “I mean, I noticed he wasn’t around, didn’t see Christopher Hayden on the seating chart at your grandparents place...”

“He’s not coming, but I don’t care,” said Rory defensively, arms crossing over her chest.

“Okay,” Logan nodded once, realising he was going to get no more answer than that, not even if he pushed. “Well, then, maybe the mood comes from the presence of Jess Mariano on the weekend of your big day,” he suggested. “You guys dated, and now his uncle is practically your step-father. That’s gotta be awkward.”

Rory squirmed in the passenger seat, so not wanting to go over this with him of all people. Her mother just bawled her out for being affected by Jess’ visit, and she denied it. She did so because she wanted it to be true that he had no hold on her anymore. The major problem was the fury building in her as the denial failed terribly. She hated that, but Rory sure as hell wasn’t about to spill her guts to a reporter about it, even if that reporter was an old friend of a sort.

“You don’t know as much as you think you do, Logan,” she said crossly, eyes fixed on the view from her window. “You have exes, a great long line of them that’d probably go around the Earth’s equator twice, with a few to spare. Would it bother you if one showed up at your wedding?”

That got a laugh out of Logan.

“Not really the same thing, Ace,” he told her what she should already know as he pulled the car into a spot in town and gave her his full attention. “I dated a lot in Yale, that’s true, and before it and after as well. I like women, women like me, I’m not ashamed of that,” he shrugged easily. “But you’re not that kind of a girl. I should know, you reminded me often enough,” he smirked.

Rory couldn’t help but smile then.

“Didn’t stop you being pretty determined,” she countered. “But we both know why that is.”

“Do we?” he checked, head tilting as he stared at her. “I mean, I know why I kept on trying, but do you? Really?”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “I was the girl who said no. I don’t really think that’s happened to you much, and when it has, I’m sure you turned on the charm, blinked those pretty eyes, and prised many a woman away from a doting boyfriend or whatever,” she said with a wave of her hand to indicate the women being led astray. “I was the only one as stubborn as you. You had to keep trying to prove a point.”

“You really think that’s why I pursued you the way I did?” asked Logan then, apparently astonished by the answer.

He also picked up on the fact that she claimed to have kept shutting him down because she was stubborn rather than because she was so completely committed to Dean, but honestly, that was a point to explore later. For now, he was more curious about her theory on him.

“Why else would you be so persistent, Logan?” she asked, head back against the head rest as she stared at him in genuine curiosity, even confusion.

A lot of women fished for compliments, Logan was used to that, but not Rory Gilmore. She was totally serious in her question, and it amazed him.

“Do you honestly not realise how amazing you are?” he asked her in all seriousness. “I mean, we just established I’m not the settling down type, not even close, but... but I think I could’ve tried for you,” he confessed, at which she let out a snigger of laughter that stung him just a little.

“You’re hilarious,” she shook her head, but Logan’s gaze didn’t waver.

“I’m serious, Ace,” he assured her. “I thought about it a few times. I knew you were the long haul type, no one night stands, no casual flings, and for a while there I thought maybe, just maybe, I could handle it. ‘Cause this girl, this amazing, smart, beautiful, intelligent woman with the sparkling wit and the ridiculous pop culture knowledge, she could be worth it.”

Rory couldn’t believe he was saying all this to her, all these compliments, all this adoration. She had no idea where it was coming from, at least she was pretty sure she didn’t. He was serious though, Rory could see the truth of his words right there in the clearness of his eyes. Logan really had liked her an awful lot, and she had no idea. The thought that she could inspire such affection in a man she had never thought about that way for more than a fleeting second here or there, it struck something in her heart, brought tears to her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, though she wasn’t entirely sure why.

She didn’t ask him to fall for her, if that was in fact what he was suggesting. Rory never asked anybody to love her, not Jess or Dean, nobody, and yet she felt she should be sorry that she pulled Logan in, almost against his will, and had given him nothing in return for his apparent devotion.

“Don’t be sorry, Ace,” he shrugged it off as if it was nothing at all, though they both knew that was untrue. “Just... Well, how about you just show me this fantastic town of yours like you said you would?” he prompted, moving to get out of the car.

The spell was apparently broken, the moment gone, but Rory still had to wipe away a tear as she got herself out of the passenger side and faced Logan on the sidewalk. This day was getting more and more strange and confusing by the second, and it was far from over yet.


	7. Chapter 6

_Saturday 21st June 2008 17:45_

Jess hopped off the bus in Stars Hollow and let out a long breath. Over two hours of signing books for so-called adoring fans was weirdly exhausting. Of course, the main problem wasn’t the ache in his wrist from writing his name so many times or even the headache that came from one too many giggling girls telling him he was awesome. The heaviness in his heart was what made Jess not walk quite so tall, that made him wish he was anywhere but here.

Coming back to Connecticut this weekend out of all of them had been so foolish. He could deny it all he wanted, say that it was a coincidence that it was all about the promotion of his new book, but that was a lie. He specifically engineered it, made sure that the Hartford date coincided with Rory’s wedding. It wasn’t that Jess had plans to be there specifically, to stand up when the minister asked if anyone objected to the union. There was no speech, no declaration in his mind at all, he just knew he had to be here.

On some level, Jess knew he was hoping for something, a reunion that was about as likely as Stars Hollow having changed at all since he left it five years ago. Nothing had really altered here, nothing but Rory. It was probably better this way, Jess thought, that Rory was so different. Just as beautiful, just as smart as ever, but altered into something he no longer recognised as his Rory. The girl he fell in love with at the age of seventeen would never be considering giving up all her dreams to be a doting wife so young. If she were marrying anyone it should be a man that understood her, that would follow her dreams as well as his own, that would be a supporter of her work but a challenge for her mind. A guy like me, Jess thought bitterly, and shook his head. His Rory, the one he had known inside out and dated for almost two years, she wanted a guy like him, in fact she wanted him very specifically back then. The new version of her and the new version of Jess, they didn’t seem to be suited at all, at least n  
ot the way she was in company. When they were alone, then Jess saw glimpses of the woman he loved, when she yelled at him, when she smiled at the gift of Ginsberg’s Howl he had given her.

Walking on down the street, he turned into the town square and got quite a shock when he saw all the bunting and twinkle lights being strung around. Of course, Rory said the town was throwing her a party tonight, and it seemed they were really going all out for the occasion. Jess recognised so many faces - Taylor, Kirk, Miss Patty, Maury and Babette - everybody doing their part for Stars Hollow’s favourite daughter. It made Jess smile, albeit in a sad way. He never did belong amongst all of this, he never really knew how.

“Jess?”

Rory’s voice speaking his name snapped him from a trance and he turned around to see her hovering there with Logan at her side.

“Hi,” he nodded a greeting. “So, the Hollow still takes its events seriously, I see,” he commented, looking back at the extensive decorating taking place. “I’m actually surprised Taylor didn’t put in a public holiday for you or something.”

“He tried, but congress wouldn’t pass it nationally, so...” Rory shrugged, that old familiar smile he remembered so well coming to her lips - Jess had missed that so much.

“He didn’t call the President personally?” he countered.

“Pretty sure he tried.”

“Sounds likely.”

Logan watched the two volley back and forth, smiling wider all the time. It was strange to realise that what passed between the two ex-lovers in the space of a minute seemed more intimate, more like a real connection, than anything he had seen between Rory and Dean yet. That couldn’t be right.

“Well, I should go,” said Jess then, gesturing towards the diner. “Gotta make myself pretty before the big shindig,” he smirked.

“You do realise the party starts at seven, right?” she teased him.

Jess didn’t respond to that. She had startled him with her joke, but mostly he was just glad to know she still had that sense of humour, the sickle wit. Her eyes lit up as she laughed at him, and she was Rory again, his Rory. Maybe there was hope yet.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 18:58_

“Yes, Mom. Yes, Mom. There is no tone, I’m just saying yes, Mom!”

Lorelai rolled her eyes as she continued to pace the living room with the phone to her ear. Luke was sat on the couch, ready to leave for the party but unable to do so until his girlfriend was finally ready. Unfortunately it seemed Emily Gilmore wasn't prepared to let go of the reins of this wedding for so much as a second, even though she and Richard would be at the party themselves before long and could quite easily have this conversation then.

“It’ll be fine, Mom. I promise, it’s all good. Okay, see you soon. Yup, see you, Mom.”

Lorelai finally hung up the phone and threw it hard into the armchair.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, running her hands over her face and then back through her hair in frustration.

Luke got up and pulled her into his arms, holding on tight, promising her everything would be fine.

“I know she’s overbearing and she’s driving you crazy right now, but look on the bright side,” he advised, making her look at him. “Tomorrow, our Rory is getting married to a decent young man who loves her. They’re going to be so happy and then all the stress you’re feeling will have been worth it, right?”

“I guess,” Lorelai sighed, making Luke frown at her. “I know. I mean, you’re right,” she insisted, voice low as her eyes flitted to Rory’s bedroom door. “I want to think that’s true, the whole happily ever after thing with Rory and Dean but... I don’t know, I just have this feeling that, that maybe her whole heart isn’t in it?”

Luke opened his mouth to ask what that meant, where all the concern was suddenly coming from, but he never got a chance to speak. Rory and April came out of the bedroom, giggling like the teens that only one of them actually was these days. 

“So, what do you think?” asked April as she Rory both twirled to their audience of two.

“You look great,” Lorelai promised them. “Don’t they Luke?” she prompted, elbowing him in the ribs when he failed to respond.

“Yes, great. Both very beautiful,” he promised with a genuine smile as he really bothered to look.

It was mostly a relief to realise that April was dressed appropriately for her age, no skirt that barely covered her butt, or top that showed off the developments she was getting in the chest area. Rory was just simply a beautiful young woman, and Luke was still floored by the fact she was fast coming up on twenty three. She had come a long way from the little girl that had barely been able to see over his counter, even from the seventeen year old that had dated his hoodlum nephew. Luke shook off all such thoughts at the sound of knocking on the door. Dean had arrived to escort his bride-to-be, and it was time to go to the party.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 19:28_

Jess stood in front of the mirror, feeling oddly reminiscent. It was five years since he had seen the inside of this apartment, five years since he last stood by the dresser, fixing his hair in the mirror with too much gel. Now he here was again, comb in hand to make himself look somewhat presentable for the sake of Rory Gilmore. It always did come back to her, even after all this time.

A pre-wedding party. He didn’t need to torture himself by going, Jess knew that, but Rory had asked him to and the masochist in him insisted he do as she asked. It was crazy really, because there had been plenty she had asked of him when they dated that he often refused. He wriggled himself out of just about everything he didn’t want to do, whether it was taking his girlfriend to the Winter Carnival or meeting her grandmother. Actually, she had persuaded him on that last one, and just recalling it now put a warm glow right back into Jess’ heart. Kissing Rory Gilmore had felt like nothing else that came before or after. Maybe he was a sap for feeling that way, probably turning into a girl as he stood here thinking about it, but that didn’t change the fact it was true. Other women came and went, one night stands, brief bouts of awkward dating. He had only ever been in love once, and Jess had to wonder after all this time if that was it for him, if his heart would only ever belong to Rory Gilmore. If that were t  
he case, considering the fact she was marrying another man in less than twenty four hours, he was pretty much doomed to misery.

“Tortured souls, that’s what being an author is all about, right?” he asked his reflection in the glass. “Whatever,” he muttered, turning away.

He checked he had his wallet and keys in his pockets, pulled on his jacket and headed out. Better to get this over with now, sleep off the pain of seeing Rory all over Forester, and then leave town in the morning before the worst happened and he stayed too long, enough to hear the woman he loved say ‘I do’ to another man. That Jess couldn’t bear. That might actually kill him altogether.

“Wow, it’s like you actually made an effort,” said April looking genuinely impressed as Jess stepped out of the diner.

“Wow, Luke let you out of the house in that dress?” he countered, looking none too impressed himself by what his baby cousin was wearing.

April rolled her eyes.

“No, he let me out in the shirt and skirt combo I had on when he saw me last,” she smirked, looking way too much like her older cousin for comfort right now. “I’m fifteen, Jess, not five. I have to grow up sometime, and hey, after some of the stories you told me about your teen years...”

“As I have told you many times, not a role model,” he reminded her, pointing to himself. “And it’s different for guys. Now please, for the sake of my sanity and Luke’s blood pressure, go and change back,” he urged her.

April really, really wanted to argue, but fighting with Jess wouldn’t be cool when he was visiting for such a short time. Besides, she knew her dad’s head would probably spin around and explode if he caught her, and since the one boy she was hoping to impress didn’t seem to be around anyway, she figured she may as well be wearing boring clothes.

“Fine!” she huffed. “But consider this the last favour I’m doing for you. You owe me, Mariano.”

“Oh no, you owe me,” he told her firmly. “I didn’t bust your ass for setting me up with Rory at the Gilmore poolhouse earlier, and I’m not going to tell Luke I saw you dressed that way,” he gestured to her distinct lack of attire. “You still owe me, cous.”

“Whatever,” April sighed, hurrying back to the Crap Shack to change.

Jess smiled and shook his head as he watched her go. Taking a deep breath, he then faced the town and all its twinkle-light craziness, complete with banner proclaiming ‘Congratulations Rory & Dean’.

Yeah, this was going to be hell.


	8. Chapter 7

_Saturday 21st June 2008 20:56_

There was no way Jess was going to get through this night without a drink. Spending a little time with April had been fine, catching up properly with Luke, even trying to make small talk with Lorelai hadn’t been too painful, though her giving him the hairy eyeball was kind of annoying. Jess looked over and saw Rory in the arms of her fiancé a few times, and then the next thing he knew she was with Huntzberger. He still wondered how close those two had been in college. Jess couldn’t imagine Rory ever cheating on good old reliable Dean, that just wasn’t her, and surely a perfect couple like them had never even so much as had a break or anything to give Rory the legitimate chance of getting some place with Logan. He sure did like her though, probably more than she even realised. Jess recalled how amazed Rory seemed to be when he told her he liked her himself. Sweet innocent little girl that she had been back then. Over time she had become so much more, and now... now there were just rare glimpses of the woman Jess had loved beneath a cold glass exterior she had built up around her. She wanted to been Dean’s angelic princess apparently, the perfect little wife. It wasn’t really her, it couldn’t be, Jess was certain, and yet she seemed to want it to be true, and Forester was happy enough to let her play the part.

It was an hour or more since Jess first stepped into the whirligig of fun that was Stars Hollow’s ‘Congratulations Rory & Dean’ bash, and as far as he could tell he just hadn’t had enough to drink yet. The alcohol seemed to be coming out of the gazebo and so he wandered up there to get himself a beer. He hadn’t seen Rory for a while and was surprised to find Logan, who had been her constant companion just recently, getting two more drinks from the table.

“Hey, it’s the brooding author,” he said with a smirk.

“The blond dick from Yale,” Jess greeted him with the same look.

Logan actually laughed and Jess didn’t wonder at it. He had meant no real malice in his words and doubted Logan was doing much more than being himself here. They were two guys who came from very different worlds, which made for friction if you let it. Jess couldn’t really care enough to let it right now, and it seemed Logan couldn’t either.

“Having fun, Mariano?” he asked him with a sly grin.

Jess shrugged his shoulders.

“You haven’t really seen a party until Stars Hollow has thrown up its joy on you,” he dead-panned.

“Yeah, these people really go all out,” Logan agreed, his words slurring just slightly.

Apparently he was also using booze to get through this night, making Jess wonder how deep this thing Huntzberger felt for Rory really ran, if it could all really be based on nothing at all from her side.

“Look, I’m sorry about all that stuff at the Gilmore family lunch thing,” said Logan then, waving it all away like so much stupidity.

“No problem,” Jess shrugged it off just the same. “You’re here to get a good story, that’s what journalists do, right?”

“Yeah, I guess we’re not that much different from you author types really, ‘cept what we say is supposed to be more fact than fiction.”

“I like that you said supposed to be,” Jess smirked all the more. “I really don’t think you’re gonna get any dirt on the happy couple. Rory’s reverted to the angelic offspring of a saint, and I don’t think Forester would know how to be so much as interesting even if he wanted to try.”

Logan laughed at that.

“I don’t know, I mean, Rory never let anybody really close in college, but I always got the impression if you could just keep her away from the lunkhead long enough, loosen her up a bit...” he said, watching Jess’ face for a reaction to the suggestion.

Logan honestly wouldn’t have been surprised to have his suspicions confirmed or denied, or maybe even to get a smack in the face for daring to suggest Rory wasn’t as pure as she seemed. The twisted smile that came over Jess’ lips confused him just a little.

“There’s so much more to her than what she is with him,” he said, looking off into space as far as Logan could tell.

He had no idea that Jess’ eyes were focused enough, just not on anything based in reality. In his minds eye he saw Rory, his Rory, as they had been years before. The two of them sat on the bridge, arguing Rand vs Hemingway. Walking through town with their arms around each other, almost getting hit by cars because they were so engrossed in kissing they didn’t see the traffic at all. Way back in the shadows of his mind he saw one night not long before he skipped town, when they got left alone in her house.

_“Rory... You sure about this?”_

_“I am. Jess, I... I love you so much. This is what I want.”_

_“I love you too.”_

She had been amazing that night, and when he told her he loved her and proved it in her bed, Jess knew he meant every word, every action, and wanted to be with her forever. It still amazed him how in a space of a week, everything had gone to such crap that he felt forced to leave her behind.

“You okay, man?” asked Logan when Jess had been too quiet for too long.

“Yeah. I’m good,” he assured the reporter, taking a long drink from his beer bottle and refocusing his mind on the here and now. “So you and Rory were, what? Just friends?”

“More or less,” Logan considered. “It could’ve been so much more, but I guess that’s one battle I lost,” he shrugged. “Of course, there’s plenty more fish in the sea,” he winked then, heading down the steps towards a pretty blonde that Jess vaguely recognised.

She probably went to Stars Hollow high when he did, way back in the day. It felt like a lifetime ago in some ways, and just yesterday in others. Jess shook his head and turned to head back towards the diner, planning to call it a night before he really went crazy. Then he heard familiar laughter, albeit it a little too loud. Looking down into the furore of people milling about, dancing, talking, he saw her.

“Paris! Lane!”

Rory didn’t know which way to run first as two of her bridesmaids came into view from opposite directions.

“Gilmore, are you drunk?” asked Paris as she reached her first. “Geez, the party started less than two hours ago. What’s the matter with you?”

“Wow,” said Lane as she joined the gathering. “I probably should’ve been taking my bridesmaid duties a little more seriously,” she frowned.

“No, no, no!” Rory insisted, taking a long sip from a large wine glass a second later. “You have enough on your plate. Two babies! Two babies on your plate... Why would they be on a plate?” she asked Paris far too seriously.

“Because you got lost in the merlot a little too early in the evening?” her friend suggested. 

“Where’s Dean anyway?” asked Lane.

Rory laughed.

“I don’t know,” she said, turning a full circle as if to look for him. “I love Dean,” she said then. “And I love my bridesmaids!” she declared with a giggle, once again flinging an arm around the neck of each woman before her.

Paris flinched away. Lane caught Rory’s body weight and almost fell on her butt because of the force she tripped forward with. Honestly, neither of them could recall the last time Rory got seriously wasted like this, but it had to have been quite a while ago. The night before her wedding certainly didn’t seem like a very Rory moment to get sloppy, but then they were both acutely aware of the reasons why things were different today.

“I love everybody tonight,” said Rory, hanging onto Lane.

“That’s always nice to hear,” said Jess as he wandered over.

Paris turned on him with anger flashing in her eyes, arms folded firmly across her chest.

“I blame you for this,” she snapped at him.

“Always a pleasure, Paris.”

“Look what you did to her!” she gestured towards Rory, who seemed to be trying to waltz Lane around the gazebo, rather unsuccessfully.

“What I did?” Jess asked with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, from what I’ve seen it’s your guy Huntzberger that’s been bringing her the wine, right up until he got seriously distracted that is,” he said, pointing towards a quiet corner where Logan and his new acquaintance were getting a little familiar. “Where’s the fiancé?”

“His little sister got sick and insisted he be the one to take her home,” Paris explained huffily. “Since she threw up on his shoes, he kind of needed to go clean up anyway.”

“Classy family,” said Jess, not knowing whether to laugh at Rory’s crazy behaviour or wince on Lane’s behalf as she was pulled this way and that in an awkward dance.

“So what?” said Paris, cutting into his thoughts. “You’re the pot, Dean’s the kettle?”

“Charming,” he threw out in response, then stepped up to rescue Lane. “Hey, Ror?”

“Jess!” she exclaimed happily. “It’s Jess! Hey, Jess,” she greeted him, flinging herself from Lane’s arms right into his instead.

“Hi,” he greeted her with a smirk he couldn’t help.

“Hi,” she replied in kind, and he swore she did that on purpose.

“I think I remember this part,” he muttered, trying to get her to stand up straight.

Rory was either incapable or just entirely unwilling.

“Dance with me, Jess,” she urged him, pulling him towards the area where many other couples were enjoying the music in their own ways.

Jess knew this was a bad plan. It was probably pretty stupid even getting involved with drunk Rory and her antics tonight, but somehow he just couldn’t help himself. He really was a masochist, and yet not so dumb as to think that dancing with his drunken ex-girlfriend on the night before her wedding, when he had just admitted to himself that he was still completely in love with her, was in any way a good idea.

“Rory...”

“Please?” she practically begged of him, all wide eyes and that pout that never failed to melt his heart. “Please, dance with me? We didn’t get to dance at Prom like we planned.”

“That’s not fair,” said Jess, looking away, though her arms locked tight around his neck and most of her bodyweight leaned against him made real escape impossible.

“No, it wasn’t fair,” she countered, making him meet her eyes again.

It was as unfair to her as it was to him, that was true. His leaving the way he had was grossly unfair, though her behaviour hadn’t exactly been exemplary before that either. Man, had they ever screwed up when they were too young to know better. So many nights Jess had dreamed about how things might’ve turned out if they had known better, right down to the moment Rory spoke of, dancing with her on Prom night.

“Dance with me now, Jess? Please?” she asked again.

He swallowed hard, and slowly nodded.

“One dance,” he told her, his voice coming out much more quietly than it was supposed to as he adjusted her weight in his arms. “But if you puke on me there are going to be consequences,” he warned, only half-joking as she suddenly seemed to get some co-ordination back and dragged him to the ‘dance floor’.

Wrapped in each other’s arms they swayed along to a slow number. Jess was relieved in some ways, since he wasn’t really much for waltzing or anything complicated. At the same time, he might have been better off without Rory so close in his arms, her head on his shoulder. She smelled like fruity shampoo just like years before, but mixed with alcohol and expensive perfume. It wasn’t an improvement.

“This is nice,” she sighed contentedly.

“Yeah,” he replied softly, feeling the warmth of her body seep into his bones. “It’s not so bad.”

“I missed you, Jess,” she confessed without lifting her head at all. “When you left I... I thought that maybe you’d come back at first, maybe for Prom, or for my Graduation, or just... sometime, but you didn’t. I thought I’d stop missing you, when I went off to college or when I started dating Dean, but... but I never did.”

“Rory...” he breathed, no more words coming when she suddenly picked her head up off his shoulder and met his eyes.

“Do you miss me, Jess?” she asked too seriously.

“Every day,” he answered like a reflex.

“Do you still love me?”

The question was too much, the answer would be way too much to ever speak in words. A simple yes wasn’t going to cut it, and explaining would take a novel. In truth, it had already taken two and he’d barely scratched the surface of what he really felt. Rory was still so beautiful, and though she had changed, grown, altered in a ways too many to list, Jess looked into the clear blue depths of her eyes and he was seventeen again, they both were. It felt like no problem to just dip his head and let his lips cover hers, so he did it, and she let it happen.

The moment lasted all of a few seconds before she pulled away. Even through the drunken fog, Rory realised what she was doing wasn’t quite right. When she turned away from Jess she found herself face to face with her fiance.

“Rory?”

“Dean!” she exclaimed, painting on a smile and throwing herself haphazardly into his waiting arms. “Dean, Dean, I’m gonna be your queen, Dean!” she giggled crazily.

Dean looked at Jess over Rory’s head.

“What did you do?” he asked with a sneer.

Jess rolled his eyes.

“Nothing,” he said simply. “She’s a grown woman, she got herself drunk,” he gestured to Rory who was now trying to get Dean to dance with her instead.

“Really?” he checked, not moving an inch, even as she pulled on his arms.

“Yes, really.”

Dean didn’t believe a word Jess said, that much was clear. Honestly, all Jess could do was wonder how much of that kiss the guy had seen, and moreover, how much of Rory’s drunkenness was for real.

“I’ll deal with you later,” said Dean with a nasty look, before leading Rory away.

“I’m quaking in my boots,” Jess dead-panned. “Jackass,” he muttered only after the so-called happy couple were out of ear-shot.

Rory was oblivious to everything as Dean practically dragged her out of the party scene. She knew she wasn’t exactly thrilled to be leaving all the fun and was completely put out to find herself outside Miss Patty’s where it was quiet and absolutely no fun was being had.

“So, you sit right here,” said Dean, lowering Rory carefully onto the steps. “I’m going to go find you some coffee, and possibly your mother,” he said worriedly. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Rory grinned wide, accepting a kiss on the forehead from Dean, and then watching him walk away.

Left alone, she wasn’t quite so happy. Rory let out a long breath, blowing her bangs off her forehead with the force. This was her party, the day before her wedding, and the only fun she’d had was dancing with Jess. He was her ex-boyfriend, that couldn’t be right. Dean looked so annoyed and embarrassed when he saw her a little tipsy. Rory couldn’t remember drinking much in front of him before, so maybe he was just confused by the way she acted after alcohol. Rory tried to think hard about it but it made her head ache.

Life was simple once. There were times when Rory was glad to be older, but others when she kind of wished she was seventeen again. Going to high school, hanging out at Luke’s, seeing Jess. A dopey grin came over her lips as she remembered how things used to be. It was strange to think it was only five years ago. Things had changed so much, all the plans she had then, all the dreams. Rory started to wonder quite what had happened to her life. 

Rory’s wandering thoughts were broken by the sound of voices. For a moment, she thought Dean was coming back, maybe with her mother in tow. No, the voices weren’t right for that, she was sure, and they were coming from behind her. Rory twisted around to see who might be there, just as the other door of Miss Patty’s studio opened, and a pretty blonde came rushing out.

“Pig!” she yelled back towards the building, and then she was gone into the dark.

“Come on! I was just being honest!” Logan called as he gave chase as far as the bottom of the steps.

A moment later he was waving away the mystery woman with no more concern. In fact he seemed quite amused by the fact she’d stormed out the way she had. Rory couldn’t help but smile as she watched him take a drag from his beer bottle only to find it was empty.

“Struck out, Huntzberger?”

“Maybe,” he replied with a shrug, staggering a little as he came to sit beside her on the steps.

There was hardly enough room for the two of them, but neither seemed to notice, being as they were a little worse off for the booze already.

“If you run after her she might be persuaded yet, I guess,” said Rory thoughtfully.

“I would but... effort and stuff,” Logan gestured vaguely. “You small town girls are hard work,” he sighed, running a hand over his face.

“But worth the effort,” Rory insisted too seriously.

Logan leaned in closer and picked up the hand that was nearest to him.

“Dean must’ve thought so,” he said as he studied the ring on her third finger.

“It’s real you know,” she told him proudly.

Logan bit his lip but failed to hold in a burst of laughter.

“What? All point two of a carat of it?”

“Be nice,” Rory admonished him, and yet a grin broke through all the same thanks to infectious laughter and her blood-alcohol level.

“Not in my nature. Besides, I’d rather be anywhere but here!”

He had practically yelled the last three words, up towards the Heavens, as if praying for help, salvation, just an escape perhaps. Rory could relate if she were honest.

“Me too,” she admitted. “Dean’s all mad at me, and Jess is...” she faltered at the very thought of him. “I don’t know, I just don’t wanna be here anymore,” she grumbled, getting to her feet but then not really knowing where to go.

Logan gazed up at her from half-sitting, half-lying on the studio steps still.

“I could drive you back to your grandparents place,” he suggested then. “We could swipe a couple of bottles, have a party of our own?”

Rory looked down at him and her eyes narrowed.

“I’m not going to sleep with you the night before my wedding, Logan! I’m not that drunk.” 

“I didn’t mean that!” he assured her, hands raised in mock-surrender, before that wicked grin broke through one more time. “Or maybe I did, a little, but can you blame me?” he chuckled, watching as her hand covered her mouth to keep from showing she found it funny too.

Logan levered himself up to his feet and was surprisingly steady once he got there. Rory instinctually backed up a step, but only the one. She knew Logan liked her, maybe more than she ever realised before, but she wasn’t afraid of him. He wasn’t that guy.

“Seriously, Ace, just come with me,” he urged her, hands on her shoulders, sticking her to the spot now. “Tell me all the really interesting stories that I won’t ever be allowed to print” he whispered with a smile. “C’mon, it’s your last night of freedom, live a little.”

Rory didn’t feel as if she had been living at all lately. She was happy enough when she was planning this wedding, but the reality of how her life was going to be from tomorrow onwards gave her reason to stop and think. Rory wasn’t so very sure she was ready for the future, to be a wife, to be a local girl her whole life. She thought it was what she wanted, to be with Dean, to be what he wanted. It was a long time since she stopped to think about what she really wanted, and Logan was right, this might be her last chance to do something crazy.

“There’s more champagne stashed in the gazebo,” she said fast. “I’ll go hide in your car!”

She ran off at top speed, tripping on her heels and reeling left and right. Logan laughed at the sight of her, but he was at least pretty sure she would make it to the car okay. Driving was going to be interesting, he realised, as he turned quickly and his head spun a little, but honestly, he had gotten himself home in worse states than this. There was no way in hell he was letting this chance slip away. A night with Rory Gilmore. No matter what that entailed, Logan doubted very much he was going to find himself disappointed in the morning.


	9. Chapter 8

_Saturday 21st June 2008 21:45_

“For God’s sake, Dean! She’s your fiancée. How hard can it be to know where you had her last?”

Jess turned slowly to look over at Paris completely bawling out Forester for ‘losing’ Rory. It would be amusing if he wasn’t kind of concerned himself as to where she might have gone to. She was drunk after all. He would like to think even in that state she was smart enough not to drive. She had good sense before, but Jess didn’t know what her decision making skills were like these days, especially under the influence.

“I left her on the steps of Miss Patty’s and I came to find Lorelai,” Dean was explaining as Jess approached. “It took me almost an hour to track her down, only for her to get mad at me because she thinks she saw me dragging her daughter around!” he said crossly. “Now Rory’s disappeared, Luke has taken Lorelai to the diner because I upset her so much, and this party is turning into a nightmare.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Dean,” Paris told him, holding her head as if it hurt, maybe because he was yelling, maybe for some other reason. “Maybe Rory is with Lane? I know she got a call to go back to her place because the kids needed Momma or whatever. Rory could easily have gone with her.”

“Fine, I’ll try there,” he said, about to go when he noticed Jess hovering around. “Unless you know where Rory is?”

“You really think I’d tell you even if I did?” said Jess smartly.

As if Dean needed any more reasons to be mad, he stormed off towards Lane’s place then and Jess bit his lip to keep the laughter in.

“I need to get out of this mad house,” said Paris, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“You suffering, Paris?” he checked.

“All these crazy people are giving me a headache,” she sighed heavily. “I only came to this stupid party for Rory’s sake, and now she’s missing in action. I’d try to track her down myself, but I think Dean is doing a good enough blood hound impression for everyone. Besides, I’ve known Rory drunk before. She’s not really a danger to herself, she just gets stupidly happy and eventually falls asleep.”

Jess liked hearing that Rory wasn’t the type to get herself into the trouble when under the influence. She was a big girl, she could take care of herself. Mostly Jess just wanted to go home himself, but Paris really wasn’t looking so good, and the gentleman in him wouldn’t let him abandon her.

“Hey, you need help getting home?” he asked her, a hand on her arm that he removed fast when she glared.

“I’d be fine if I had a car. Emily and Richard brought me over, I can’t really leave until they want to, and I’ll bet that’s not now,” she sighed.

“Look, let me go talk to Luke. I can get the keys to the truck and I’ll take you home,” he offered.

Paris narrowed her eyes at him, even though it make her head hurt all the more.

“It’s Rory that has the questionable taste in men, not me, Holden Caulfield,” she warned him.

“Paris, the day I make a pass at you will be the day I take up line dancing,” he countered. “I’m just trying to be a good guy here, okay?” he told her definitely. “I’ve had a beer and a half, I’m totally fine in control of a vehicle.”

The music seemed to suddenly come on louder, and a cheer went up too close to Paris for comfort. Her head pounded with untold vigour and she closed her eyes a second, swallowing hard.

“Fine,” she huffed. “Go get your truck.”

Jess shook his head at her attitude that really hadn’t changed much over the years and then walked away to find Luke.

_Saturday 21st June 2008 22:17_

“Here’s to you, Ace!” Logan toasted Rory from his place laid out on a sun lounger. “The future Mrs Forester. May you always be as much fun as you are right now,” he laughed.

Rory laughed too, drunk as she was, literally dancing precariously close to the edge of the pool. It was getting late and was pitch black beyond where they were sat. Lights from the house shone over them, and fairylights strung in the trees beyond added to the strange glow that Rory was feeling inside. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was knowing she had run out on her own party and nobody knew where she went. Maybe it was being here with Logan. The idea of it made her giggle madly.

“I don’t think my fiance would like what I’m doing right now,” she said with a grin. “My grandparents either. Emily would be all ‘Rory, this is not proper behaviour for a young lady!’” she said in her best ‘grandma’ voice.

Logan bust up laughing again.

“Hey, you’re over twenty one, you can drink if you want to,” he told her, trying to get up from the lounger and finding it much harder than normal. “It’s not the 1800s so we don’t need a chaperone,” he added, finally getting to his feet.

“Agreed,” Rory said, spinning around right as he got in her path.

She landed rather ungracefully in Logan’s arms and altogether forgot how to stand on her own two feet when their eyes met.

“And hey, you’re still single until tomorrow, so whatever happens...” he said with a look that even a drunken Rory well understood.

She shook her head.

“Nothing’s going to happen,” she told him, surprisingly definite for a person with a slur. “See this?” she said, bringing her left hand up between them, practically shoving her ring up Logan’s nose. “This means I’m engaged, taken, committed.”

“All that means is that a guy wants to marry you and at some point you were overwhelmed enough by the question to say yes,” he replied.

Rory frowned at that. Her automatic reaction ought to have been a denial, a carefully laid out list of reasons why Logan had it all wrong. She wasn’t marrying Dean just because he asked her, it was because he loved her and she loved him, because he was the kind of guy she should want to be with.

“Dean is reliable, dependable, respectable...” she reeled off.

“So basically he’s a very ‘able’ guy?” Logan smirked annoyingly.

Rory pulled herself from his arms, staggering a little as she went back to her own lounger and sat down hard. Maybe Logan was right. What if she was just marrying Dean because he was the kind of guy she thought she needed? What if their entire relationship was just a rebound from the guy who had been the complete opposite of Dean. It all came back to Jess, it always had.

“You okay?” asked Logan, feeling a little bad that his wild and happy friend now looked so depressed.

“I need Dean,” she told him and herself as well apparently. “He’s... he’s everything Jess isn’t.”

“And at the time that was all you wanted,” he nodded, sitting down carefully beside her. “Thing is, just because Dean might be the sensible choice, doesn’t mean he’s the right one, Ace,” he advised.

Rory looked sideways at him.

“And what would be better? You?”

It was a throwaway comment, not a serious question, and yet when her eyes met his again it was clear he took it as such. Why not Logan? Rory knew why. She couldn’t love him, she never had. He was a nice enough guy, good looking, charming, even sweet sometimes, but any features that attracted her were the same things that attracted her to Jess. She couldn’t go down that path again, especially not with a man with a rep like Logan had. She would be a fool.

“Logan...”

She didn’t know what she meant to say after his name. Rory bit her lip when she felt tears coming to her eyes. This was crazy. She wasn’t even sure why she was here, wasn’t sure of anything right now. Logan saw the struggle behind her eyes and took pity on her.

“Come on,” he smiled, picking up her hand in his. “Let’s dance some more.”

Rory smiled as he pulled her up with him and then into his arms. The music had changed to something slower. It was easy just to melt into the comfort of someone’s warm embrace and sway to the melody. Rory was comfortable, happy, floating along on a cloud of champagne bubbles, at least for a while. Dancing like this with Logan just took her back a couple of hours to being in Jess’ arms just like this. Logan made her feel oddly comfortable, but nothing could be as perfect as dancing with Jess, letting him kiss her and remind her of all she had been missing in her life.

“Sometimes I think my life would be better without men altogether,” she sighed, mostly just thinking aloud rather than speaking directly to Logan. “I can’t figure out why you all even care about me. I’m not this great person...”

“Hey,” Logan stopped her immediately, lifting her chin on his finger to meet her eyes. “Don’t say stuff like that. You know how great you are.”

“Am I?” she asked in all seriousness, swallowing hard. “I wasn’t good enough for Jess. Everybody blamed him when he left me, I blamed him too at first. He was my first boyfriend, my first love, my first everything,” she confessed tearfully. “I thought we were forever, but when he left it wasn’t all his fault. I didn’t treat him right. I was... I was always on his case about school, about the future. I-I made him feel bad, and I knew I was doing it but I didn’t stop. When he really needed me I wasn’t there for him,” she cried.

“Did you tell him all this?” asked Logan.

Rory shook her head.

“Kind of... some of it,” she floundered, one hand going to her face, wiping at tears, holding her head that ached and spun all at once. “I don’t know, I... I apologised, he did too. It doesn’t make us better people, it doesn’t mean it could work, and... and I shouldn’t even want it to,” she cried, shivering when Logan’s hand came up to her cheek, his thumb wiping away her tears. “It’s the night before my wedding and I’m here, dancing with you, and...” her voice wavered as she looked up into his eyes. “And if you kissed me right now, I don’t think I’d stop you.”

It was all he needed to hear, and Logan took full advantage of her admission, claiming a kiss he’d been wanting for too long. Rory felt further tears leak from her eyes as his lips moved against hers. She always knew Logan would be a great kisser, but this wasn’t what she wanted. She was such an idiot. It was never about Logan, it was never really about Dean. Rory pulled herself away from Logan so suddenly, they both almost pitched over on the ground with the force.

“Rory...” he gasped out her name.

“Please, don’t,” she shook her head. “I don’t know why I wanted you to kiss me. I don’t know anything anymore.”

“Let me help,” Logan urged her. “You wanna get out of here? We can. You don’t have to be with me, but you don’t have to be here either, not if you don’t want to be,” he promised her.

Rory’s mind was racing, faces flashing into her mind, moments from the past, ideas of what the future might be. She felt sick and giddy, and far too hot. Her eyes landed on the rippling water of the pool. Without a moment’s pause, she dived in.


	10. Chapter 9

_Saturday 21st June 2008 22:31_

“I’m not saying it wasn’t a book worthy of publication, I’m just saying you got very lucky that the right person discovered it at exactly the right time to launch your career the way they did,” said Paris, the way only she could.

Jess couldn’t help but smirk. She really was the most straight-up person he ever met in his life, which could be annoying but was also kind of refreshing too. After an afternoon spent with the ‘fans’ fawning all over him, and then in Stars Hollow with most people either actively avoiding him or being the fake kind of nice that made him cringe, Paris was a welcome change, and actually she hadn’t really been that nasty on the car journey home. Jess wasn’t dumb enough to think it was gratitude making her any nicer. That wasn’t Paris at all, he remembered that much from years ago. Maybe she was relieved to be away from the Hollow though. Her headache sure seemed to clear up fast once they broke the town limits.

“Also, you didn’t have to walk me to the door,” she continued on as they reached the Gilmore house proper. “It is the twenty first century you know, and I’m not Rory.”

It had all been kind of amusing until Paris mentioned her friend, the bride. Jess had been doing a pretty good job of almost completely putting Rory and the kiss they shared right out of his head, but in that moment it came back full force. Five years since the last time, it still felt the same somehow, like nothing else had ever felt in the meantime. His eyes must’ve glazed over just thinking back because Paris noticed she’d lost his attention.

“It could’ve been you, y’know? If you’d stayed” she said, making Jess look up fast. “Rory was so in love with you, I’d never seen a person so into anybody in my life. I still haven’t.”

“Yeah, well,” he shifted awkwardly in place, his shoes suddenly very interesting.

Talking about feelings was never Jess’ strong suit, and though he had explained himself in part to Rory by letter at least, he wasn’t really hoping for the verbal version with Paris Gellar of all people.

“That’s it? The great author that is Jess Mariano, and the best you can do when it comes to the woman you love is ‘yeah, well’,” she said, echoing his tone but sounding nothing like him really.

“Paris,” he sighed. “I left her, five years ago, and now she’s marrying some other guy. What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to be a man!” she told him crossly. “Geez, you think I don’t know what happened with the two of you? First I had to sit through the tears and the wailing because you were gone. Then some time later, the drunken confessional portion of Rory’s grief when she told me that the break up wasn’t all your fault - like I didn’t know that already,” she rolled her eyes. “Even after she got with Dean, your name came up a lot. She must’ve asked me at least a hundred times if she should call you or write to you, especially after that apologetic letter you sent a couple of years back.”

“She showed you that?” asked Jess, eyes wide.

Paris shook her head.

“Credit her with some sense, beatnik,” she huffed. “She told me the gist of what you said, then any time you two inexplicably ended up on the phone to each other, we had to go through the whole thing of what you said, what she said, what it might mean. She never once stopped caring what was going on with you. I had that Subsect of yours shoved in my face so many times, I eventually read it just so she would stop bringing it up, and still you were topic number one more times than I care to count.”

Jess didn’t know what to make of any of this. Rory had been on his mind every day since he left. For five years, through all he had done, all his achievements, every place he went, he thought of her. He wondered what she was doing, if she was happy, what she would think of a book he was reading, or one he was writing. All the time she was there in his head, more so in his heart, but he just assumed she was better off without him. Maybe she was, and yet, if that were true, he couldn’t imagine why Paris, who never even liked him all that much in the first place, would be telling him all this.

“You look like you’re going to vomit,” she said, staring at his odd expression.

“I’m fine,” he shook his head. “Mostly anyway. Paris, has Rory ever actually told you that... that she still...”

“That she still loves you?” she filled in, knowing how much trouble he had with the verbal sometimes. “No, not out loud, but I’d be amazed if it weren’t true. Don’t get me wrong, she cares about Dean, she probably does love him in some way or other, but it’s not the same. He was safety guy, the total opposite of you, which is what she thought was best for her.”

“Maybe it is,” Jess shrugged.

“Maybe,” Paris agreed. “But safe isn’t always what makes a person happy. For God’s sake, I met Doyle through speed dating! He could’ve been an axe murderer, a pervert, but do I regret it? No. He’s not perfect, but for some reason I love the stupid little dwarf,” she sighed heavy. “I guess there’s no accounting for taste.”

She almost smiled when she said it, and it was clear as anything that she wasn’t really talking about herself and Doyle anyway. She may not fully understand Rory’s attraction to Jess, and up until tonight he would have sworn he had no clue what anybody would ever find attractive about Paris, but she had her moments.

“You’re one of a kind, Gellar,” he told her easily.

“So I’m told,” she replied, taking no offence whether it was meant that way or not, and she doubted it right now.

When Jess leant in to kiss her cheek, Paris didn’t flinch. For once, she didn’t speak either, just blinked with surprise and then headed inside without another word. Jess let out a long breath, leaned his back against the wall a moment. Maybe Rory did still love him, he already knew he loved her, but asking her to run out on her wedding for him, that was a whole other thing entirely. Jess was strarting to wonder if Paris hadn’t somehow passed on her headache to him by osmosis as he rubbed his forehead and pushed off the wall. He needed to get back to Stars Hollow, get some sleep so he could head out on the first bus tomorrow. It would be better for everyone if he didn’t hang around for the wedding.

The sound of singing stopped Jess in his tracks half way along the driveway. There was no way in hell it was Paris, and nobody else was supposed to be here. He had left Emily and Richard at the party, and it was unlikely any member of their staff would be wandering around singing at almost midnight. Turning back, Jess listened harder. Two voices, one male complimenting the female on her singing which was by no means in tune.

“Rory?” he said more to himself than anyone else.

“You’ve seen Rory?” asked a much closer voice, and Jess visibly jumped.

“Geez, what the hell are you doing?” he asked Dean, finding him at his shoulder.

“I’m looking for my fiancé, as if you didn’t know. What are you doing?”

His eyes narrowed suspisciously as he looked down on Jess like Frankenstein’s monster, at least that was how Jess saw him. A ridiculous twelve foot tall giant, just glowering down. It would be so sweet to play on the guy’s insecurities, make him think that Rory was just packing her bag to run away with him, leaving Dean behind. In the end, Jess couldn’t do it, for Rory’s sake more than anything. He heard her muffled laughter in the distance, mixed with that male voice again. It had to be Logan, it was the only thing that made sense. If Dean saw whatever was going on, the consequences wouldn’t be pretty. Jess cared too much for Rory still to have her life messed up because she made some drunk mistake. She loved Dean, she wanted to marry him. If that was what would really make her happy, Jess wasn’t about to let it go down in flames.

“I brought Paris home,” he told Dean with a shrug. “When we left the party, I’m pretty sure Rory was still in the Hollow. I can help you look for her, if you want?” he offered too reasonably.

Unfortunately, not only was Forester not buying Jess’ false platitudes, he had heard the giggling as it came closer too. He knew it was Rory, just the same as Jess did, and there was absolutely no denying it when suddenly Logan appeared, carrying Rory in his arms, ironically in bride-style. She had started singing again, something that sounded vaguely like Guns of Brixton. Jess bit back a smirk.

_“This isn’t Shakespeare.”_

_“It’s not?”_

_“It’s the words to a Clash song!”_

_“Ah, but which Clash song?”_

_“Hey, I’m not the one being tested right now.”_

_“Ten seconds.”_

_“Jess!”_

_“Nine, eight, seven...”_

_“Stop it!”_

_“Six, five, four...”_

_“You know you’re really starting to...”_

_“Three...”_

_“Ooh, ooh, Guns of Brixton!”_

_“A plus.”_

Jess completely missed Dean’s eyes flashing with anger and brow furrowing all the more at the sight of his beloved bride-to-be in the arms of another man. Logan was staggering terribly, though Jess knew for a fact Rory didn’t weigh much at all. It had to be the booze that had him listing all over the place, though what took his attention more than the ungainly walk then was the fact both Logan and Rory were wearing robes.

“So, you guys been having fun?” he asked easily, as if it were all no big deal.

“What the hell did you do to her?!” Dean yelled before Jess’ question could be answered.

Rory opened her eyes then, picked her head up of Logan’s shoulder and realised they had company. She grinned all over her face.

“Dean! And Jess! she giggled happily. “It’s a party!”

“Sprain your ankle, Ror?” Jess asked her, stepping towards the drunken non-couple, very deliberately getting in Dean’s path.

“No, not wounded, just dead!” she said dramatically, throwing herself against Logan all over again.

He staggered a bit with the sudden shift in weight, but that only served to make them both laugh.

“Ace isn’t so used to the champagne, and when she hit the water the bubbles hit her,” Logan chuckled. “You know which way her room is?” he asked Jess who shook his head.

“Dean?” he checked.

“I can take her,” he said, holding out his arms for Rory.

Logan looked uncertain. Jess cut in.

“She’s comfortable where she is, man, just let him take her,” he advised.

“This has nothing to do with you!” Dean told him crossly.

Rory groaned; “Why is everybody yelling?”

Her hands came up to cover her ears. Jess shot Dean a look and he relented. No use upsetting Rory if they didn’t have to.

“Top of the stairs, first on the right,” he ground out.

“You put her down you come straight back here, okay?” Jess advised Logan as he opened the patio door for him and Rory to slip inside. “You’re more than five minutes, and you’re all his,” he warned, tipping his head towards Dean who looked ready to turn green and burst out of his shirt.

“Five minutes,” Logan nodded vaguely, staggering off into the house.

There was a brief pause and then suddenly Dean was on the move. 

“I’m not giving him five minutes...” he muttered, but Jess got in his path again, put a hand to his chest to stop him. “Get out of my way, Jess!”

“Sorry, can’t,” he shook his head. “You go in there busting heads, you wake up the maid and the cook and God knows who else Emily and Richard keep in there. They tell the lady of the manor, and Rory is in for the mother of all lectures as a minimum. You know this.”

Dean did know it. He hated it, but he knew it was true, and that meant he couldn’t argue with Jess or punch out Logan. He really, really wanted to just take down the both of them right now, but it seemed he wasn’t going to be allowed. There was just no arguing with what was best for Rory.

“I can’t believe this,” he said, releasing his frustration by punching his fist into his other hand and pacing the patio. “We’re supposed to be getting married tomorrow. What the hell was she thinking?” he asked, words he would love to yell to the Heavens, Jess was sure, but was forced to keep his voice down by the circumstances they were caught in.

“I’m guessing she was thinking ‘last night of freedom, let’s get drunk’,” Jess suggested. “Rory has this happy habit of being all straight-laced and perfect right up until the point where she just decides to be crazy.”

“I don’t wanna hear your theories on what Rory is like,” Dean told him with a severe look. “You don’t know her anymore.”

“Is that so?” Jess countered. “I’m sure you’d like to think that’s true, but I’ve known her a lot longer than you. I knew her first. In every way you can think of, I knew her first.”

Dean hadn’t known that. Jess said it not really expecting it to be a surprise and yet Dean’s eyes were wide as saucers and his mouth dropped open like a cartoon. He really genuinely hadn’t known that Rory had been with Jess that way. Before the great oaf even had a chance to process the fact, Logan came staggering back to the scene.

“Look, I don’t know what you guys think happened...” he began to explain, but Dean was already seeing every possible shade of red.

Jess knew he hadn’t helped with that, and that the guy was about to knock seven bells out of the reporter given half the chance, venting not just his anger at catching Logan and Rory in an almost-comprimising position but hearing the truth of how intimate Jess and Rory had been too. It all happened in a split second as Jess spun around, clocking Logan straight across the jaw - he went down like a felled tree.

“What the hell?!” Dean exploded.

“Hey, you’re not married to Rory yet, Lurch,” said Jess definitely. “And he pissed me off first.”

Dean looked fit to explode, and yet he knew that once again he couldn’t argue with the point made. Now Logan was unconscious, Rory was asleep in bed, and there was nothing he could do to improve the situation. With a growl of pure frustration, he left the scene. Jess made sure he was out of ear-shot before he moved to crouch down by Logan’s head. The guy wasn’t out cold, just very drunk and properly stunned.

“Hey, Huntzberger!” he called, lightly slapping his face. “You still alive in there, man?”

Slowly, painfully, Logan managed to get himself up onto one elbow. His other hand came up to his chin, shifting his jaw back and forth.

“I thought you and me got along,” he said, looking bleary-eyed at Jess who only smirked.

“Trust me, if Forester took a swing you’d be lucky if you got away with an ambulance tonight, might’ve been a hearse instead,” he told him seriously.

“Lesser of two evils, huh?” Logan sighed, closing his eyes as the world spun horribly.

“Something like that,” Jess agreed. “So, what did happen with you and Rory tonight?”

He wasn’t sure what answer he expected, if any at all, or how he would feel when he did hear the truth. Chances were Logan and Rory weren’t likely to have done much more than kissed, not if she was still the woman he used to know, at least on some level. Jess trusted his gut on that one, even if Dean didn’t.

“I, er... I mean, we...” Logan made vague gestures with one hand, his eyes rolling around his head, until finally he laughed and forced out a whole sentence. “We had a great time,” he declared, before passing out completely on the floor.

Jess watched him collapse and blew out a long breath.

“Yeah, because that explains everything.”


	11. Chapter 10

_Sunday 22nd June 2008 10:15_

“Hey, Rory? C’mon, sleepy girl!” said Lorelai, urging her daughter awake.

The mid-morning Summer sunshine was blazing through the window, warming her skin, but Rory didn’t want to face the bright light of it. Her head was pounding, her stomach churning. If she could just spend today hiding away in bed she was sure she would be fine for tomorrow when she had to get married.

“Mom, I can’t,” she groaned, turning way.

“Well, I really don’t think we can postpone your entire wedding just because you had a couple of glasses of wine last night,” her mother told her.

Rory’s eyes popped open very suddenly.

“What? Today? My wedding is today!” she gasped, sitting up fast.

She immediately regretted the movement and crashed down against the mattress, her hand over her mouth. She felt so sick and her head hurt so much. What had she been doing last night? Rory realised with no small amount of panic that she really couldn’t recall.

“Hey, it’s okay,” said Lorelai, pulling her daughter’s hands away from her face. “So you got a little drunk and you’re feeling a little green; it’s fine. The ceremony isn’t for a few hours, we have time to get you back to the land of the living.”

Rory nodded absently, her mind still whirring as Lorelai helped her to sit up slowly against the headboard and the pillows arranged in front of it. She remembered going with Logan to Stars Hollow, and geting changed for the party at the Crap Shack. She did have some memory of chatting with various friends and family members, of Logan bringing her wine that tasted so good. Beyond that, everything got extremely blurry.

“How much did I drink?” she asked, rubbing her forehead.

“Well, I don’t think anybody was keeping count, but I’m going with a lot,” Lorelai told her, forcing a glass of water and two aspirin into her daughter’s hands. “Those will help, I promise.”

Rory took her pills and downed the entire glass of water, hoping the effects of both kicked in sooner rather than later. Maybe it would help bring her memory back too, but somehow she doubted it. What she did remember of yesterday, before the party, Rory didn’t really like anyway.

“I’m so sorry, Mom,” she told her then. “For yelling at you the way I did...”

“Hey, that’s all forgotten,” her mother assured her. “Seriously, hon, it’s no big deal. I never should’ve accused you like I did in the first place. I know you’re committed to Dean, and that if you had any doubts at all about him you wouldn’t be marrying him, right?”

“Right,” Rory nodded slowly, and yet her mind was on other things.

She barely recalled spending any time with Dean yesterday, though she must have done so. She remembered a lot of bits and pieces concerning Logan, and some with Jess, but very little of Dean.

“Should I even ask what you remember about last night?” asked Lorelai then when her daughter continued to look rather less than human.

Rory frowned hard, making her head pound more. She rubbed at her temples and fought the rising tide of nausea, hoping to recall any small detail of what had happened between the wine at the party and now. There were some hazy pictures, but honestly, Rory couldn’t decide what was last night, what was older memories, and what had been part of some pretty crazy dreams. She hoped rather than believed that most of what she could picture belonged to the dream category.

“Mom, I think..” she began, shifting to ease herself off the bed. “Ow!” she exclaimed suddenly, reaching for her leg when something jammed in it. “What in the...?”

Pulling her hand out from under her thigh, Rory was stunned to realise she had just found a watch. It definitely belonged to a man, and not exactly a guy who was short of cash either.

“A Rolex?” said Lorelai, as she stared at the timepiece in Rory’s hand. “Dean doesn’t have a Rolex.”

“No,” Rory swallowed hard before looking up to meet her mom’s eyes. “But Logan does.”

Lorelai’s eyes widened at that particular revelation. Honestly, she didn’t want to think her daughter had done anything too terrible last night, but if she had made some mistake with another guy, Lorelai had kind of assumed it would be Jess, not the Huntzberger kid. She looked seriously at her baby girl.

“Rory, I know there’s a lot you don’t remember about last night, but a woman knows if she has or has not gone that far,” she said definitely.

Rory’s lip wobbled as she slowly shook her head.

“No, I’m pretty sure we didn’t... but that doesn’t mean nothing happened,” she considered. “He had to have been in my room, Mom. I wouldn’t have his watch for no reason, and in my bed!”

Her voice started rising as panic set in. Lorelai shushed her immediately.

“Hey, now, come on. I managed to convince your grandmother, April, and Paris all to stay out of your way until I saw you first, which was not easy, I might add,” she said quickly. “You start yelling and the whole household is going to come running. That’s a lot of folks right now, baby girl.”

Rory took a deep breath and tried to be calm and reasonable. So there was a hole in her memory last night, that wasn’t such a big deal. People got drunk and they did silly things. She wasn’t the first and she wouldn’t be the last. If Dean loved her then he could forgive her one slip, after all, she never did have one ever before in their whole relationship. Still, Logan’s watch in her hand felt like a lead weight, and she started to wonder what Jess would think if he knew. Rory wasn’t sure why that should matter after everything, but the thought was there in her mind and it wouldn’t go away.

“C’mon, Rory,” Lorelai urged her to keep her focus. “I know I said we have some time here, but it’s not exactly long enough for a Tolstoy reading,” she said, getting up from the bed and grasping both her daughter’s hands in an attempt to help her up too. “Let’s get you into the shower, and then I’ll ask the maid to fix you some breakfast. Before you know it we’ll have you in the big white dress, all princess-like and elegant, and nobody will ever know you looked like this,” she said, gesturing at the crumpled dress and panda-eyed make up look Rory was currently sporting.

She nodded along with what her mom said, but Rory wasn’t hearing much. In contrast, she was feeling everything, every emotion and every possible pain and nauseous tendency. She was getting married today, she should be elated, but somehow even if the hangover subsided, she just couldn’t see it happening.

_Sunday 22nd June 2008 10:47_

April was in a corner with a book, trying to avoid Emily’s yelling and the general tramp of the staffs feet piling in and out of rooms when suddenly she felt a shadow come over her. She looked up and immediately grinned at the sight of her cousin.

“Jess!” she greeted him, scrambling to her feet to give him a hug. “You came!”

“To say goodbye, yeah,” he told her awkwardly. “April, you know I’m not invited to the wedding,” he shook his head.

His cousin frowned hard.

“But you’re here,” she argued, as if that were enough explanation.

Jess sighed.

“I’m here because I owe you and Luke enough to let you know when I’m leaving town again,” he explained. “Look, I wandered in with the help so I wouldn’t get the third degree from Emily and Richard, or Lorelai for that matter,” he went on. “I just want to say a quick goodbye and get my ass out of dodge.”

April watched him look left and right, even up the stairs as he spoke. There was no way she was buying this crap, no way in hell.

“Jess, I’m fifteen, I’m not stupid,” she reminded him. “Are you really telling me you came here not hoping to catch a glimpse of Rory? I don’t believe you,” she told him definitely, arms folded across her chest in defiance.

Jess could’ve carried on arguing, but honestly, he didn’t like lying to April in the first place. In some small but stupid way, he had come here hoping to see Rory. If he were completely honest with himself, he was hoping to find the wedding was off, that Rory had realised what a horrible mistake she was making in marrying a guy like Dean. Even if she left with Logan and not Jess himself, that might hurt less. At least that guy might make her happy for a little while and she would get to be herself, live out her dreams. Being with Dean was condemning her to mediocrity and boredom. Jess hated that more than he hated the idea of Rory living her life as someone’s wife when the husband wasn’t him.

“Jess, hey, what are you doing here?” asked Luke as he returned from the patio.

“Just came to say goodbye,” he reiterated what he had already told April.

“That’s what he says,” she muttered.

“Well, you should stay a little while, have a drink or something,” said Luke, patting Jess on the back.

“A drink? It’s eleven o’clock in the morning,” his nephew smirked.

Luke leaned in close and dropped his voice low.

“Spend ten minutes in this place today, it’ll feel a lot later.”

Jess laughed at that and then sighed.

“Fine, I’ll take a beer, just to keep you company,” he acquiesced. “Can’t have poor old Uncle Luke becoming a lone drinker, can we?” he teased.

In truth, he kind of liked the idea of hanging around. Seeing Rory in her wedding dress would be some kind of sweet torture, he was sure, but Jess had always been kind of masochist, especially where the love of his life was concerned. Why change the habit of a lifetime? Besides, the look on her face when she saw him there might be something to cherish. Especially if she remembered last night. Right now, Jess honestly wasn’t sure whether he wanted her to or not. In time it seemed he would find out.

_Sunday 22nd June 2008 12:35_

The Gilmore clan and its various additions were gathered in the living room and on the adjoining patio when Rory finally emerged from her room. She was looking mostly elegant as she came down the stairs in her beautiful white dress, with her hair all piled up and in pretty curls, wearing a slightly wobbly smile. Lorelai had got her cleaned up, fed, and dressed, but honestly Rory still didn’t feel a hundred percent and she doubted it was only the alcohol last night that was to blame.

Not remembering what had happened bothered her. Lorelai couldn’t tell her, she had spent much of the evening placating her own mother who was not at all comfortable among the many odd by well-meaning denizens of Stars Hollow. Rory knew if Paris had seen exactly what occurred she would have told her out-right, only all her bridesmaids seemed to be pretty absent this morning. Lane was planning to arrive more or less last minute since she had the twins to deal with, not to mention Zach who could be worse than the kids sometimes! Paris was around, in her room from what Rory could tell, either yelling at Doyle or some other poor unfortunate. As much as Rory wanted to know the truth, she was not going to interrupt Paris in full flow, not for as long as her head was still pounding.

“Oh, Rory!” Emily gasped at the sight of her, hands shooting up to cover her mouth.

“Rory, you are a vision,” her grandpa assured her as he put out a hand to help her down the final two steps.

Her eyes filled with tears as those gathered in the room all murmured about how beautiful she looked, smiling at her and greeting her like a princess. Rory didn’t feel much like a princess, in spite of the beautiful flowing white gown and all. It wasn’t just the hangover making her feel nauseous, it was facing all these people who loved her, knowing she was nothing like the angel they all seemed to think. She hadn’t been for a long time, Jess knew that better than anyone, he was maybe the only one that really knew her that well, and Rory gasped at the realisation that he was there in the room with everybody else.

“Okay, I don’t know about the bride, but Mama could use a little nerve steadier right now,” said Lorelai, only half joking. “Point me at the mimosas, Dad?”

Richard rolled his eyes at her behaviour but nevertheless furnished his daughter with a drink. Emily took one too and wasted no time in beginning to tell Lorelai how she wasn’t happy about Rory having been locked away from her while she was getting ready. Rory herself wandered away and out onto the patio, thinking at the very least some air would do her good. It was Luke that followed her.

“Hey, you doin’ okay?” he checked.

“Honestly?” she said with a look. “I’m not sure.”

Luke didn’t know what he was supposed to say. He didn’t like the idea of Rory being out here alone. She didn’t look right somehow, and her behaviour the last couple of days had definitely been off. In fact, when he thought about it, there were a lot of times lately when she hadn’t been quite the Rory he remembered from all the years he had known and loved her like a daughter.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked hopelessly.

Rory turned slowly to face him.

“Could you maybe...?” she began, her question fading to nothing when she realised Jess was right there behind Luke now. “Hi,” she greeted him.

“Hey,” he replied, stepping outside. “Luke, you think you could...?” he asked vaguely.

Luke looked to Rory for confirmation she was okay with this, and off her careful nod he agreed to go back inside. There was a silent promise made as he closed the patio doors that he would ensure they weren’t disturbed by anyone from inside.

“You’re staring,” said Rory, looking away from Jess’ familiarly intense gaze.

“It’s hard not to,” he told her simply. “You’re beautiful, Rory.”

“It’s the dress,” she blushed terribly, feeling seventeen all over again.

Jess shook his head.

“It’s a lot more than the dress,” he told her.

Rory suddenly wondered why she ever agreed to be left alone with him after everything. This was her wedding day, she was already feeling so messed up, and now she had chosen to be alone with the one guy who had an innate ability to turn her head around. She had to be crazy.

“I’d say it was the hair and the jewellery too,” she muttered. “But I seem to have lost my diamonds somewhere.”

That comment made Jess smirk.

“Actually, they’re not all that lost,” he admitted, producing something sparkly from his back pocket.

Rory’s eyes widened as he stepped towards her, open hand outstretched, revealing her engagement ring and the necklace her grandma leant her for both last night’s party and today’s ceremony.

“How did you...?” she began to ask. “When did you get them?”

“Let’s just say you left them lying around and I found them,” he shrugged. “I figured you wouldn’t want just anybody getting their hands on this stuff.”

“Thank you,” she said absently, picking the jewellery out of his hand and looking them over, trying desperately to recall how she might have come to take them off, how Jess would’ve found them.

He was never going to run away with them, of course. The plan had been to drop them off via April or Luke, but between the two Jess had been kept talking too long until suddenly Rory was descending into the room, dressed like a princess. He couldn’t walk away so easily, Jess knew he couldn’t. They had to talk one more time, even if the outcome was pain.

“Rory...” he began to say, but was interrupted by another arrival on the patio.

It was nobody that Luke could’ve intercepted since he approached from the driveway rather than the house. Logan looked a lot brighter this morning that Rory did, but the bruise on his chin suggested his night had been as rough as hers.

“Logan, what happened to you?” she asked him.

“Nothing much,” he assured her, eyes shifting to Jess and back in a second. “Look, I came to talk to you about last night...”

“I’d like to hear a little more about that also,” said another familiar voice that made Rory wince immediately.

Dean appeared from his car behind Logan’s own in the driveway, and his face was like thunder. Rory looked to Jess for help, but he seemed reluctant to meet her eyes right now. Nowhere was a safe place to look or to run to, Rory could see that now and yet this whole thing just had to be figured out. How she had come to be caught between three men on the morning of her own wedding, Rory had no idea, but she did know that she had to figure it out now, and fast too.

“Get away from her,” Dean told Logan, pulling him back by the shoulder.

“Dean, don’t!” Rory yelled at him, immediately regretting making so much noise. “What are you even doing here? You can’t see me before the ceremony, it’s bad luck.”

“You don’t think things are bad enough already?” he checked.

“I don’t know, I think they just got pretty interesting,” Jess smirked annoyingly.

Dean all but growled at him.

“You’re not welcome here, Jess, so why don’t you just leave?”

“If Rory wants me to go, I’m gone. Other than that, I’m staying.”

All eyes went to Rory as tears came to her eyes. She covered her face with her hands a moment and tried to get her bearings.

“I don’t know what I want. I don’t feel like I know anything anymore,” she admitted sadly. “Last night was just... I honestly don’t know what it was. There’s so much I don’t remember, and... and I think I might’ve done something I shouldn’t, but...”

Her eyes landed on Logan and she watched him sigh and shake his head.

“Ace, let me refresh your memory,” he said, shoving past Dean to get to her.

His hands went to her shoulders, pulling her up straight and making her meet his eyes.

“Rory, last night I brought you back to this house, where there was talking, drinking, and a little very awkward dancing,” he glanced at Dean as he continued. “This illicit affair that I’m pretty sure your fiancé thinks we had consisted of exactly one kiss and an ill-advised late night swim,” he explained with shocking clarity. “I may have been drunk but I hold my liquor a lot better than Ace here. I know nothing serious happened.”

“It didn’t?” she checked, not sure whether that was a relief or just an insult somehow. “Why didn’t it?”

“Rory!” Dean gasped with shock at the sound of that question.

“I’m not saying I wanted it to,” she shook her head, immediately regretting it when her brain seemed to start swimming around inside her skull. “I’m just... I need to know,” she insisted, looking to Logan again. “Those things you said to me before, about how much I meant to you, but when you had the chance...”

“I didn’t have a chance, Rory,” he told her with a kind smile. “I’m a lot of things but I don’t take advantage of women who can’t walk a straight line or remember their alphabet. I was drunk, you were very drunk, and I knew you wouldn’t want me that way if you were sober. We talked, we danced, we kissed, you jumped in the pool and I fished you out,” he explained succinctly. “I met these guys right here on this patio, I took you inside to your bed - at which point I think I lost my watch - and then I came back outside. That’s when Mariano popped me in the mouth.”

Rory swung around way too fast to look at Jess who was skulking in the background still. His only response to her questioning look was a smirk that she remembered far too well from their time together. She looked back at Logan and a burst of laughter escaped her lips without her really meaning for it to happen.

“I actually vaguely remember dancing around the gazebo, and a kiss, I think,” she admitted. “I honestly wasn’t sure how much I dreamt, but... that doesn’t matter now,” she sighed. “Thank you, Logan” she said, relieved to have heard the truth. “You’re a much nicer guy than you think you are,” she promised him, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Thank you” she repeated.

“No problem, Ace,” he assured her, pulling her closer again to return the favour of a kiss on the cheek.

Before they parted, he whispered in her ear, and then turned to walk away. He was almost to the driveway when suddenly he looked back as if a thought had occurred to him very suddenly.

“Oh yeah, I’m not going to cover your wedding, or submit any kind of article about this weekend,” he told the so-called happy couple. “My dad will throw a fit, but at me, not you guys. I guess I should’ve known, you don’t write newspaper stories about your friends.”

He tipped Rory a wink and then Logan was gone, into his car and away before she could even have another thought, never mind create a sentence. As much as she was blown away by Logan not reporting on her disastrous wedding weekend, she was more floored by what he had whispered to her before he left. Her eyes went to Jess and couldn’t leave his face, even as Dean tried to get her attention.

“Okay, so, your behaviour wasn’t exactly great last night, but hey, nobody’s perfect,” he sighed. “I guess we can just put it behind us, move on. I’m not stupid enough to throw away everything we have over a kiss and a swim with a guy we’ll probably never see again.”

Rory was only vaguely listening at first. She kind of heard the words that Dean was saying and yet, they didn’t really matter all that much in any real sense. He still didn’t have the whole story, and maybe he would still forgive Rory if he did, but she wasn’t sure she wanted him too.

“I... Dean, I have to explain,” she told him. “I never meant to hurt you...”

That was enough for Jess. He had been hanging on, waiting to see what the outcome of this whole thing would be, if he was the reason Rory was seemingly changing her mind. Hearing her talking to Dean then, looking so sorry for all she had done, rather than declaring she was leaving him, it was the very worst outcome Jess could’ve imagined. It pulled at the wound in his heart caused by their parting five years ago, knowing she was still choosing Forester. Jess couldn’t handle it. He walked away and neither Rory nor Dean even really noticed.

“Dean, I... I can’t marry you, and you shouldn’t want to marry me,” she said definitely. “And it’s not about Logan and what happened last night, it’s... it’s about me. I’m not the person you think I am. I don’t even think I’m the person I thought I was,” she tried to explain, but knew she was failing badly. “Dean, I’m so sorry, but I’m just... I’m not worthy of the love you want to give me. I’m not sure I ever was.”

Dean’s face showed such a mixture of expressions, all flashing by at least two at a time. Eventually he settled on hurt and anger combined.

“Is this about him?” he checked.

They both knew he meant Jess. Rory sighed and rubbed her aching forehead.

“No, not really,” she insisted. “I mean, maybe Jess made me think about some things, but it’s always been there, this feeling like I’m not doing my best by you, that I’m not being me because... because I’m afraid you won’t like me the way I really am,” she shook her head. “I know I’m not explaining this well, Dean, and I’m sorry, but all I know for sure is that you deserve better than me, and I need to find out who I really am. I can’t do that married to you, I’m sorry.”

She pulled the ring from her finger and held it out to him. Dean just stared in shock for a moment, before finally taking the diamond ring from her and turning to walk away. Rory watched him go and twin tears streaked down from her eyes. Wiping them away with both hands, she knew her sadness only came from knowing she just hurt a good man. She wasn’t sorry about what she had done in letting him go. It had to be done. Her heart had belonged to one person all this time, and it was never Dean. When she turned to tell Jess the truth of all she felt for him, she finally realised he was gone.

“No!” she yelled, rushing down the drive, looking everywhere. “Jess!” she called, catching up to him out front of the house where he was almost to the gates already. “Jess, please!” she yelled, rushing after him, hampered by her sizeable dress.

“Go back inside, Rory,” he told her, not even turning around.

“I can’t,” she insisted. “Jess, I told Dean it’s over. I can’t marry him, I don’t know why I ever said yes when he asked,” she explained. “He was what I needed after you left, he was everything you weren’t and I thought that made him perfect, but it didn’t.”

“Well, I sure as hell was never perfect, Rory,” he said with a bitter laugh as he faced her.

“Don’t you see? That’s what makes you perfect for _me_ ,” she told him desperately. “Jess, neither one of us are the best people in the word, but we’re what’s best for each other. I see that now,” she tried to tell him. “When Logan said he and I danced and kissed, I thought I remembered, but I don’t,” she shook her head. “He whispered to me before he left, he told me the parts I remembered were me and you. It was so hazy and mixed up, I swore I dreamt it, but Jess, last night when you kissed me... it was the final piece of a puzzle I’ve been trying to put together for so long. I love you,” she declared out right then. “I love you and only you. I don’t think I ever loved anybody else as much.”

Jess couldn’t believe he was hearing this, that Rory was actually standing here in a wedding dress, telling him she loved only him. It was crazy. Five minutes ago she was engaged to another man, and now... there were no words he could think to say, nothing he could think to do except exactly what he did. In two strides, Jess closed the space between them and swept Rory up into his arms, kissing her like his life depended on it. She kissed him back with all the love and passion she felt for him, the pair of them lost in the moment until they physically had to part just to breathe.

“I love you, Rory,” he promised with the little air he could find in his lungs. “It’s always been you.”

“Rory!” her mother’s voice carried down the drive and Lorelai soon came into view, seemingly amazed by the sight that met her eyes. “Okay, what the hell?” she checked.

Rory laughed.

“Mom, I... I have to go away for a while,” she said, glancing from Lorelai to Jess’ beautiful dark eyes sparkling at her. “I’m going to join Jess for the rest of his book tour,” she said with a grin, not caring that she just invited herself without checking.

He didn’t mind, she already knew that, and had it confirmed beautifully as he kissed her one more time.

“Um, okay,” said Lorelai, shaking her head as if that would clear everything up. “What about the wedding in there? What about Dean?” she asked pointedly.

“Dean’s gone,” Rory explained with just a hint of sadness, before the grin returned to her lips. “But you shouldn’t let the wedding go to waste,” she said, yanking pins from her hair and swiftly handing her veil to her mother. “Mom, please. Don’t waste it!” she said pointedly, looking over Lorelai’s shoulder to where Luke hovered by the front door, wondering what on Earth was going on.

“Rory...” Lorelai shook her head not sure what else to say.

“I love you, Mom,” she promised, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “You understand, right?”

Lorelai looked from Rory to Jess and back, then she sighed.

“Yeah, I do,” she admitted.

The two women hugged and then Rory grabbed onto Jess’ hand and followed him out to the cab that arrived right on time. They slid into the backseat together, as Lorelai looked on, waving to them as they left the scene.

Luke appeared at Lorelai’s shoulder, and when she looked at him she wasn’t altogether surprised to see he was smiling.

“Well, I guess I couldn’t really see this turning out any other way,” he considered. “Could you?”

Lorelai smiled too, unable to help it.

“No, not really,” she admitted, looking down at the veil in her hands then. “Hey, Luke?” she said, glancing up at him. “You wanna marry me?”


	12. Epilogue

_Friday 24th December 2010_

Rory Gilmore ought to have known this could work out in the end. If things seemed too good to be true, that was because ninety nine percent of the time, that’s exactly what they were, but she had always hoped they were that rare one percent, her and Jess, and in the end, she had been proven right.

When Jess Mariano came back to town, Rory had been so mixed up in her feelings towards him. She had been due to marry another man that very weekend, but Jess had thrown her world into a spin, just like the first time he showed up in Stars Hollow. It seemed as if he was just there to cause trouble, but that didn’t quite ring true for Rory. Everybody else always saw Jess as a problem, a trouble-maker. To her, he was just the first guy she fell in love with, the only man she had ever felt quite this deeply for, and now they were proving that love to the world as they became husband and wife.

Far from the elegant affair at the Gilmore estate two Summers ago, instead they opted for a much smaller ceremony at Christmastime, in the main room of the Dragonfly Inn. Just family and close friends for the main event, and then later, a party in town with everyone they loved and who loved them. Rory couldn’t have been happier.

“So, how’s it feel, Mrs Mariano?” Jess asked Rory as they parted from the kiss that sealed their vows.

“Being married to you? It feels great,” she told him with a giddy smile as they turned towards their small audience who all clapped and cheered.

“Oh, baby!” Lorelai moved in to hug Rory and then Jess as well for good measure. “Congratulations!”

“You don’t think maybe it’s a little off to be calling me ‘baby’ now?” her daughter pointed out, mindful of her mother’s ever expanding bump as they stood close together.

“Hey, you will always be my baby, no matter if you’re married or how many brothers and sisters me and Luke give you,” she said definitely, grabbing hold of her husband’s hand. “Just don’t go making us grandparents yet, okay?”

“Mom!” Rory blushed terribly, still a hint of the pure and innocent good girl about her even after everything.

Jess knew different. Sure, she was sweet and kind, all those things, but not quite the innocent the town had helped raise from the age of five. Rory could be wild and adventurous and she reclaimed that part of herself the night before what should have been her wedding to Dean, but turned into Lorelai and Luke’s special occasion in the end. In the months that followed, she got the travelling correspondent job she always wanted, they saw the world together, or at least the very best parts of it, and Jess wrote a third novel that came out just a month ago now. The dedication in the front said it all; ‘Rory, will you marry me?’ He had presented her with a copy from the first print run and watched her eyes go wide when she saw the words written just for her, and now here they were, five weeks later, married and ecstatically happy.

“Finally,” April sighed as she joined the scene, hugging Jess and then Rory. “I was starting to think we’d never get to this day!”

“Sorry you were left hanging, April,” her cousin dead-panned. “The trauma must’ve been so terrible for you. We loved all the drama that led to this moment, just loved it.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you were both too dumb to see how perfect you were together,” she rolled her eyes.

Rory looked to Luke and Lorelai, hoping one of them would tell the teen that maybe she should be more polite or whatever. They both shrugged.

“Hey, she has a point,” Luke told them easily.

“Absolutely,” Lorelai agreed.

“If everybody was so smart, why did you all let me get within an hour of marrying Dean?” asked Rory then, feeling Jess’ arm around her waist flinch at the mere mention of the other guy’s name even now.

“You had to figure it out on your own, babe,” her mother told her. “You both did.”

“And we made it in the end,” Jess said, hugging Rory closer. “That’s what matters right?”

“It’s all that matters,” she smiled, leaning in to kiss his lips.

Finally, life was everything she wanted it to be.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope to post Chapter 1 tomorrow, which will jump forward to June 2008, and then the fun really begins ;)


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